The Ministry of Commerce and Industry concluded a workshop on “Geographical Indications Related to Trade” in Riyadh on November 3–4, 2014, in collaboration with the Ministry’s Global Trade Services Center and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The workshop was led by international experts in international trade from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), with the participation of 45 representatives from the government and private sectors.
The workshop highlighted the importance of protecting each country’s geographical indications and explained the benefits countries can derive from protecting their geographical indications to add value to their national economies. It is well known that every country has geographical indications of which it is proud and which it considers among the treasures bestowed upon it by God in its lands, or whose fame its citizens have contributed to through their creative abilities and talents, With the development of international trade, these indications have acquired high commercial value, as they now provide added value to the products bearing them.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has begun drafting a regulation on geographical indications to prevent individuals and legal entities from using national geographical indications without authorization, and to benefit from the protection provided by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization, which requires that geographical indications be protected in their country of origin in order to qualify for such protection.
The draft regulation on national geographical indications aims to protect these indications as an important aspect of intellectual property rights, and to protect national products for which regions of the Kingdom are renowned as geographical indications that are closely linked to their places of production and for which the Kingdom is considered their original geographical origin, as well as to prevent unauthorized individuals and entities from exploiting the reputation of these products or imitating them in a way that misleads consumers about the true source of these goods or harms the rights holders in the production of these goods.
This is part of a series of workshops organized by the Ministry in collaboration with international organizations specializing in international trade, with the aim of raising awareness and knowledge of global trade issues and how to benefit from international trade agreements.
