Geographical indications: aligning EU rules with changes to the implementing provisions under the Lisbon Agreement

PURPOSE: to ensure the alignment of the relevant EU legislation to the amended Common Regulations for the WIPO Lisbon System of Geographical Indications in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: on 14 July 2025, in the Sixty-Sixth Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO the Assembly of the Lisbon Union adopted the amendments to the Common Regulations under the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration and the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications (hereinafter “the Common Regulations”), with 1 July 2026, as their date of entry into force.

The Union is a Contracting Party to the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications.

Regulation (EU) 2019/1753 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the action of the Union following its accession to the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications establishes the rules and procedures concerning actions of the Union following its accession to the Geneva Act. As a consequence of the adoption of the amendments to the Common Regulations by the Assembly of the Lisbon Union on 14 July 2025, several provisions of Regulation (EU) 2019/1753 will have to be amended by the date of entry into force of the amendments to the Common Regulations to ensure the consistency and coherence of Regulation (EU) 2019/1753 with the updated Common Regulations, and thus to enable the Union to continue to be fully operational as a Contracting Party to the Geneva Act.

CONTENT: as of 1 July 2026, following the new Rule 15 of the Common Regulations, Contracting Parties shall be allowed to submit requests to encode new types of modifications: modification of the name of an Appellation of Origin or Geographical Indication registered under the Geneva Act, modification of the type of good or product and modification of the description of the particulars concerning the quality, reputation or characteristics of the Appellation of Origin or Geographical Indication concerned.

At present, the procedures set out in Regulation (EU) 2019/1753 apply only to the submissions of applications for registration of Appellations of Origin or Geographical Indications of the Union, to the decisions to protect or refuse the protection to the Appellations of Origin or Geographical Indications registered by the other Contracting Parties and to the authorisation to Member States, members of the Lisbon Agreement and joining the Geneva, Act to notify to the International Bureau their Appellations of Origin.

This proposal sets out new procedures in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2019/1753 to:

- facilitate the submission by the Union of modifications to Appellations of Origin or Geographical Indications, of the Union and of its Member States, which are relevant for the protection in the Geneva Act of such Appellations;

- allow the Union to assess whether to protect appellations of origin or geographical indications originating in the territory of contracting parties other than Member States for which a modification has been encoded in the International Register.

These amendments are necessary to allow the Union to meet its obligations under the Geneva Act.

The proposal also provides for administrative simplification by deleting the obligation for Member States which were party of the Lisbon Agreement before the accession of the Union to the Geneva Act to transmit to the Commission any notification made by the International Bureau under the Lisbon Agreement and the obligation for the Commission to transmit those notifications to all other Member States.