英文摘要 |
The globalization of economy has meant protecting intellectual property rights becomes important not only on a national and local basis but also on an international basis. This is evident from the negotiation and ultimately inclusion of the TRIPS Agreement, or Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, into the World Trade Organization. In the TRIPS Agreement, one protection to a local intellectual property on an international level is the protection of geographical indications, and such protection may be found in Articles 22 through 24 of the TRIPS Agreement. Geographical indications are place names, or in some countries also words associated with a place, used to identify products with particular characteristics because they come from specific places. Currently, under Articles 22-24 of the TRIPS Agreement, a two-tier system is set up to protect geographical indications of wines and spirits with an increased level of protection and geographical indications of other goods with a lower level of protection. Two issues have developed as a result of Articles 22-24: (1) whether to extend the increased protections under Article 23 currently granted to wines and spirits to all products; and (2) how to establish a global registry for geographical indications. These two issues have caused heated debates during the Doha Round Negotiations of the World Trade Organization, resulting in iv deadlocks among many WTO Members. This paper examines the legal aspects on geographical indications protection in order to formulate a workable geographical indication protection system in light of WTO Doha Round Negotiations. Key words: geographical indication, extension issue, registration issue, Doha Round Negotiations, TRIPS |