From 27 to 30 March 2017, the Standing Committee on the Law on Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT/37) took place at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The session was opened by Francis Gurry, WIPO Director General, who noted that the issue of developing the Design Law Treaty (DLT) is a priority for the Organization for the period 2017-2018. He also stressed that the protection of country names against registration and use as trademarks is a major issue because the country name is fundamental, together with the emblem and flag.

The protection of Graphical User Interface (GUI), Icons through the prism of legislation relating to industrial designs were brought up for discussion during the sessions.

Protection of geographical indications was another topic discussed both in the plenary and in the Information Session on Geographical Indications (SCT/SI/GEO/GE/17/1 Prov.) organized on March 28. Reports presented by representatives of the producers from Italy (cheese), USA (wine), Colombia (coffee), France (wines) and representatives of various institutions (European Commission, intellectual property offices, ministries, etc.) were focused on two compartments :

• Features, experiences and practices of the different national and regional geographical indication protection systems;
• Protection of geographical indications on the Internet and geographical indications and country names in the domain names.

Committee sessions were attended by Simion Levitchi, Head of Trademarks and Industrial Design Department, State Agency on Intellectual Property (AGEPI) and Marin Cebotari, Counsellor of the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Moldova to the UN Office and other International Organizations in Geneva.

Republic of Moldova’s representative, Simion Levitchi, was elected Vice-President of the 37th session of the Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications.