March 30, 2021
Oman deposited on March 30, 2021 its instrument of accession to the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications ("Geneva Act").
The instrument of accession was deposited with WIPO Director General Daren Tang by Ambassador Idris Abdul Rahman Al Khanjari, Permanent Representative of the Sultanate of Oman to the United Nations in Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland.
The Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement will enter into force, with respect to Oman, on June 30, 2021.
This accession will allow Oman to protect both its appellations of origin and geographical indications under the Geneva Act, such as its emblematic Omani frankincense whose essential oil in its purest form can be sold for as much as $6,000 per liter, its Al-Jabali goats, or Oman’s traditional national symbol, the Al-Saidi dagger (‘Khanjar’), to name only a few.
The Geneva Act, which entered into force on February 26, 2020, provides producers of quality products linked to origin, with faster and cheaper access to the international protection of their products' distinctive designations. It further develops the legal framework of the Lisbon System, which helps promote many globally marketed products such as, for example, Bananas of Costa Rica, Champagne, Tuscan Oil, or Bohemia Crystal.
The Geneva Act, which will cover 33 countries with Oman, is designed to help ensure that producers of quality products linked to origin are able to protect the distinctive designations of their products in multiple jurisdictions, either as appellations of origin or geographical indications, through a single application with WIPO and the payment of one set of fees.
The Geneva Act, concluded in 2015, and the Lisbon Agreement, concluded in 1958, constitute together the “Lisbon System” for the international registration and protection of appellations of origin and geographical indications. The Lisbon System, which will cover 54 countries with Oman, provides protection for names that identify the geographic origin of products such as coffee, tea, fruits, cheese, wine, pottery, glass and cloth.
Examples of appellations of origin and geographical indications include Kampot Pepper (Cambodia), Comté (France), Tokaj (Hungary), Sarough Handmade Carpet (Iran), Tequila (Mexico), Porto (Portugal), Chulucanas (Peru) and Huile Téboursouk (Tunisia).