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USPTO Videos Now Available Online

Posted by J Matthew Buchanan at October 3, 2005 03:14 PM

Geographical Indications link goods or services originating in a particular geographic area with particular characteristics

Videos about current issues and events at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) are now available on this website. There are currently three videos posted. Topics covered include highlights of the USPTO’s annual independent inventors conference and a video targeted at young people to educate them on the consequences of copying and downloading music and other entertainment from unauthorized sources.

The featured video this month deals with the vital issues of protecting geographical indications. It explains the United States government’s position regarding a type of intellectual property that indicates the origin of goods or services in a particular geographic area with particular characteristics. Some examples are Parma Ham, Roquefort Cheese, Florida Oranges and Idaho Potatoes.

Geographical indications (GIs) are an important topic because of the ongoing debate at the World Trade Organization (WTO) regarding whether the international rules for the protection of GIs at the national level are sufficient or should be rewritten to accommodate some WTO Members’ trading goals. There are some WTO Members demanding a rewrite of the international rules in order to accomplish worldwide automatic protection for their geographical indications. Such a system would extinguish many uses of generic terms like parmesan, feta, sherry, or champagne in the United States and other WTO Members and would negatively impact the existing trademark uses of these types of terms, even to the point of potentially eliminating the registration of any geographic term as part of a trademark. Such proposals would obviously have a significant and decidedly negative impact on the U.S. trademark system and on U.S. producers and exporters. This video was designed by the USPTO and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to outline the U.S. protection system for GIs and to address some concerns about changing the international rules for GIs.

You can view the videos at the following URL: http://www.uspto.gov/video/index.htm

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