Decision

9 October 2023: Joint minutes of second meeting of the United Kingdom-Central America intellectual property subcommittee

Updated 23 February 2024

UK hosted virtually, October 2023.

The second meeting of the United Kingdom-Central America intellectual property subcommittee took place on 9 October 2023 via video conference between the UK and Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama.

1. Greetings and opening remarks

The UK chair welcomed UK and Central American colleagues, highlighting this committee as an opportunity to strengthen collaboration on protection of intellectual property rights. Central American colleagues welcomed and introduced their respective delegations.

2. Adoption of the agenda

The agenda was adopted.

3. General intellectual property (IP) segment

3.1 Update from the UK

The UK provided a number of updates on the UK’s domestic regime, including:

• the launch of a public consultation on the UK government’s proposed approach to implementing the Beijing Treaty
• UK government’s wide-ranging programme of work on music streaming
• the Trade Marks (Amendment) Regulations 2022 coming into force in December 2022
• UK government working with users and rights holders to produce a code of practice on copyright and artificial intelligence (AI)

The UK also provided an overview of the support the UK Intellectual Property Office provides for businesses and IP education.

3.2 Update from Costa Rica

Costa Rica informed the working group that it is party to 16 international conventions and made steps to have a modern intellectual property system in line with the best international standards.

3.3 Further updates

El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua confirmed that they did not have any updates since the last committee meeting.

The parties agreed to follow up with Honduras and Panama over written correspondence due to technical difficulties during this section.

4. Geographical indication (GI) update

4.1 Update from the UK

The UK provided information on the registration process and verification process under the UK GI schemes. The UK will consider the request to add GIs from Costa Rica and El Salvador.

The UK noted that its transborder GIs (Irish whiskey and Irish cream) are not correctly listed on Central America GI registers.

Following the information from parties about updating the transborder GIs, the UK stressed that these transborder GIs should be amended and represented as both EU and UK GIs as agreed under the UK - Central America agreement.

4.2 Update from El Salvador

El Salvador explained how transborder GIs were presented on their GI registers and informed the working group about the process for changing the rights holder of transborder GIs.

4.3 Update from Costa Rica

Both parties agreed to continue this discussion by correspondence regarding the registration of transborder GIs.

4.4 Update from Guatemala

Guatemala informed the working group about the process for changing the rights holder of transborder GIs.

4.5 Update from Nicaragua

Nicaragua informed the working group about the process for changing the rights holder of transborder GIs.

4.6 Update from Panama

Panama informed the working group about the process for changing the rights holder of transborder GIs.

5. Any other business and closing remarks

The delegations expressed mutual gratitude for the productive and informative meeting, noting that they look forward to further engagements. The parties agreed to continue the dialogue and the UK committed to organise a follow up GI technical meeting to resolve outstanding concerns.