Extending the Protection of Geographical Indications: Case Studies of Agricultural Products in Africa

The TRIPS Agreement (for trade-related intellectual property rights) provides for the general protection of geographical indications (GIs) of product origin, including for example the special protection of wines and spirits and for the creation of a multilateral register for wines. The African Group of countries has been in the forefront of countries agitating in the World Trade Organization TRIPS Council for the extension of this special protection and of the multilateral register to industries which are of interest to developing countries, primarily agriculture. The so-called "extension question" is the central feature of the Doha Development Agenda at both the WTO and World Intellectual Property Organization. This book provides some empirical evidence and applied legal and economic reasoning to this debate. It provides both a general review of the key issues and a series of case studies from six Anglophone and four Francophone countries in Africa. These focus on major agricultural commodities such as coffee, cotton, cocoa and tea, as well as more specific and local products such as Argan oil and Oku white honey.

Michael Blakeney is Winthrop Professor of Law at the University of Western Australia and Visiting Professor in IP and Agriculture at Queen Mary, University of London. He is an arbitrator with the International Court of Arbitration, and frequently advises a range of institutions and organizations on intellectual property management. 

Thierry Coulet is Director of Euriane Consultants, Lyon and currently teaches the principles of regional integration, trade policy and competition policy at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lyon. He has undertaken a number of projects in the areas of trade policy and statistical information systems in Africa, South America, the Middle East and Far East Asia. 

Getachew Mengistie is an intellectual property Consultant and Former Director General of the Ethiopian IP Office. He has undertaken a number of projects with organizations such as UNECA (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa) and WIPO, most recently concerning the establishment of GIs for the cloves industry of Zanzibar and the cotton industry of Uganda. 

Marcelin Tonye Mahop is a Programme Officer and policy expert with the Congo Basin Ecosystems Conservation Support Programme of the Economic Community of Central African States, and provides technical support on genetic resources policies in the context of the GIZ-implemented Access and Benefit Sharing Initiative Programme "Implementing the Biodiversity Convention".