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Barbara Abegg
Switzerland
Rebecca Anderson-Smith
United Kingdom
Dana Bentata
Venezuela
Dennis Cavanaugh
United States
Faisal Daudpota
United Arab Emirates
Marianne Decker
Luxembourg
Pascale Demoly
France
Benjamin Fontaine
Spain
Christian Freudenberg
Germany
Ozlem Futman
Turkey
Stéphane Guerlain
France
Marie-Emmanuelle Haas
France
Stefan Hubacher
Switzerland
Peter Johannes Klein
Germany
Arnaud Lellinger
France
Alkisti-Irene Malamis
Greece
Dina Martins Pereira
Portugal
Jose Juan Mendez
Mexico
Paolo Migani
Italy
Boris Osgnach
Italy
Alan Park
United Kingdom
Riina Pärn
Estonia
Iris Quadrio
Argentina
Fernando Rodriguez Dominguez
Spain
Shane E. Smyth
Ireland
Christian Thomae
Mexico
Alexey Vakhnin
Russian Federation
Olivier Vrins
Belgium
Andrea Zappalaglio
Italy
Geographical Indications Committee
Chair
Andrea Ringle
Germany
Vice-Chair
Aitor Pomares
Spain
Secretary
Angelica Lodigiani
Italy
DESCRIPTION
The Geographical Indications Committee activities concern the legal aspects of GIs and more specifically their difficult relation with trade marks and possibly other distinctive signs. Due to the fact that in quite a few countries GIs are protected by collective and/or certification marks, the Geographical Indications Committee is also active in this special domain. Consequently, the GI Committee establishes permanent relationships with EU entities such as DG AGRI (for GI Regulations), EUIPO (for absolute and relative grounds of examination in relation to GIs or for Regulations for which EUIPO is in charge) and WIPO (Lisbon Agreement). The Geographical Indications Committee will actively cooperate with other organizations dealing with GIs, such as OriGIn, and will follow judicial decisions and, more specifically, those relating to GIs and trade marks.

MISSION STATEMENT
The Mission of the Geographical Indications Committee is to get involved in all matters dealing with the relationship between both trade marks and Geographical Indications, and domain names and Geographical Indications. This includes their definition, their protection, their role in international trade and IP agreements, and, more specifically, the question of how to resolve conflicts between the said two forms of IP. The Committee will evaluate all arguments carefully and prepare the opinion and draft position papers that (once they have completed internal review and approval process) can be filed with the competent bodies, such as the European Commission, EUIPO, WIPO and other relevant institutions.