The 41st Session of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT/41 Committee) took place in Geneva, Switzerland, on 8-11 April 2019.

According to the Agenda, during the current session of the SCT Committee there were discussed several topics related to:

• protection of industrial designs, in particular with regard to the graphical user interface (GUI);
• update on trademark-related aspects of the domain name system (DNS)
• protection of country names and geographical names of national significance, including in the domain name system (DNS);
• protection of geographical indications.

The work of the SCT/41 Committee was attended by 230 representatives from 98 WIPO Member States and 22 international governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The Republic of Moldova was represented by Simion Levitchi, head of the Trademark and Industrial Design Direction of the State Agency on Intellectual Property (AGEPI).

The meeting of the SCT/41 Committee was opened by Francis Gurry, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization, who noted the importance of the current meeting of the Committee to discuss topics on the agenda. He mentioned that the drafting of the Design Law Treaty (DLT) is a priority and will be included on the agenda of the WIPO General Assembly in 2019.

The work was moderated by the Chair of the Committee Alfredo Carlos Rendon Algara, Deputy Director General, Mexican Institute of Industrial Property. The vice-chairs of the SCT Committee were Simion Levitchi, head of the Trademark and Industrial Design Direction of AGEPI, Republic of Moldova, and Ingeborg Alme Råsberg, Senior Legal Advisor, Trademarks and Industrial Design Department, Norwegian Intellectual Property Office.

The Questionnaire on Temporary Protection Provided to Industrial Designs at Certain International Exhibitions was finalized at the current session under Article 11 of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, which will be sent to the Member States to present the relevant information.

A database containing information on the legal framework, the practice in the reference field of several states was presented in the discussions on geographical indications. After testing this tool, checking the information, the database will be accessible on the WIPO page for any interested person.

It has decided to organize an Information Session on some subjects of major interest referring to geographical indications.

In the SCT/41 Committee on 9 April 2019, an Information Session was organized on the priorities of the oriGIn Organization for 2019. Among the priorities were mentioned the protection of geographical indications at international level and on the Internet, cooperation at national level.

The full agenda of the SCT/41 Committee can be accessed at https://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/sct/en/sct_41/sct_41_1_prov_3.pdf.