MCI called on the public and those interested to express their views and suggestions on the draft of Geographical Indications System, through its website, before Tuesday, 29/03/1436 AH, corresponding to 20/01/2015 AD, indicating the pursuit of this project to protect the geographical indications, being an important aspect of the Intellectual Property Rights.
This project comes as a result of the Ministry's desire to protect the domestic products, which are popular in the Regions of the Kingdom, being Geographical Indications closely linked to the places of production, and the Kingdom is considered the original geographical source of such products, in order to prevent the exploitation of the fame of these products by people and other unauthorized parties, or imitating them in a way to mislead the consumers about the real source of these commodities.
The Ministry pointed out that the preparation of a draft on the Geographical Indications System also aims at enhancing the competitiveness and marketing capacity of these products in the markets, through taking advantage of the protection offered by the Systems and International Conventions, particularly the Trade Agreement related to the Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights in the World Trade Organization, which requires that the member countries should be committed in providing the legal protection to prevent the use of Geographical Indications in a manner which misleads the public and the consumers about the true geographical origin of such commodities.
It is worth mentioning that, in order to benefit from this Agreement, the Geographical Indications should be protected in the country of origin, and therefore the said draft would provide the required protection.
MCI would like to call on the public and those interested to participate and to express their opinions through the access of this link:
Click Here