On 30 May 2024, the Moldovan Parliament ratified the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications of 11 April 2016 (Official Gazette no. 264-267 of 21 June 2024). This represents another step towards the creation of a mechanism to protect geographical indications ("GI"), which would be similar to the mechanism that protects designations of origin ("DO"). It should be noted that the Moldovan legislation allows the registration of GIs and DOs for both agricultural/food products and non-agricultural/non-food products.
The entry into force for the Republic of Moldova of the Geneva Act opens up the possibility to seek international protection for Moldovan GIs. At the same time, it imposes on the Republic of Moldova the responsibility to examine requests for protection of GIs and DOs in Moldova submitted in states that are party to the Geneva Act. In addition, to establish the regulatory framework needed to implement the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement, on 26 April 2024 the Parliament adopted certain amendments to Law No. 66 dated 27 March 2008 "on the protection of geographical indications, designations of origin and traditional specialties guaranteed" ("Law 66/2008") (Official Gazette no. 213-215 of 17 May 2024). In this context, the international registration chapter now provides detailed regulations for the procedure of international registration for both DOs and GIs. In parallel, this presented a valuable opportunity for the Moldovan Parliament to address certain gaps in Law 66/2008, including issues related to the right to protection (rules on the primary conditions for registration of GIs, DOs and traditional specialties guaranteed ("TSG")), the right of use, and to establishing the institutional framework for the placement of GI, DO and TSG products on the market.
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