On Geographical Indications Of Doha Round And The Countermeasures For China

Geographical Indication is a very important intellectual property right, which has enormous economic, political and cultural values, playing a prominent and unique role in economic and trade activities. Many countries use it commonly in domestic legislation. As a result, protection of geographical indications has now become a worldwide hotspot.WTO—World Trade Organization, and the TRIPS Agreement—Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, have made the special section of provisions on geographical indications. The latest round of multilateral trade negotiations—he Doha Round, has eight issues of negotiations. One of the issues is intellectual property issue. It contains the following three parts:a multilateral system of notification and registration of geographical indications, the extension of protection of geographical indications and the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Two issues are debated in the TRIPS Council under the Doha mandate in the field of geographical indications negotiations:creating a multilateral system of notification and registration of geographical indications for wines and spirits; extending a higher level of protection beyond wines and spirits. Members remain deeply divided over geographical indications negotiations and fail to reach an agreement so far. It will be able to gain more interests and favorable results for China in the Doha Round by taking stock of the Doha Round process and elaborating and proposing practical countermeasures for China.This article has used many methods, such as:the literature analysis methods, classification analysis methods, comparative analysis and survey analysis methods. It has been based on the WTO documents, which starts from the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement on protection of geographical indications and makes a process review and summary in the geographical indications negotiations of the Doha Round from the beginning of2002to the latest developments. It mainly starts from the parties’proposals to the negotiations and analyzes their respective positions. It begins from the current situation of legal protection of geographical indications in China and draws the conclusion:China should advocate the multilateral system of notification and registration of geographical indications issue and the extension of protection of geographical indications issue to a "package" of negotiations. At the same time, in order to reach an agreement among members, China should support the multilateral system of notification and registration of geographical indications negotiations on the basis of the extension of protection of geographical indications negotiations and bundle with the two issues to have a visible way to maximize the protection of Chinese interests.