In this section, the speakers will present the experience of a national Administration to protect geographical indications for non-agricultural products (as well as the initiatives taken by the Commission). Please click on the presenter name(s) below to view their content:
Mr. Nicolas Guyot is a Legal Advisor in the Industrial Property Rights Legal Services Department of the Legal and International Affairs Division, in the Swiss Federal Intellectual Property Institute (IPI). He was appointed to this position in December 2015. He first worked in the Trademarks Division of the IPI, which he joined in 2010, as an examiner.
Nicolas is a Swiss national who holds a Law degree from the University of Geneva, a Law and Economics Master Degree from the University of St. Gallen (HSG) and a Biology degree from the University of Lausanne. He was admitted to the Swiss Bar and practiced several years as an attorney in a commercial law firm in Geneva.
After an extensive career as an Intellectual property expert, first in the private sector in France and then in the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal market (OHIM, now EUIPO), Ms. Valérie Marie d’Avigneau joined the European Commission in 2009. She is now leading an initiative on a possible extension of Geographical indication protection of the European Union to non-agricultural products.
Ms. Malwina Mejer has worked as an economist at the European Commission’s DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs since June 2013. Her expertise and interests lie in the areas of innovation and intellectual property protection. She has been involved in the analysis of and advised on Unitary Patent Package, EU Trade mark Reform and export manufacturing waiver for SPCs. She is currently analysing the economic impacts of protection for geographical indications. Malwina holds a PhD in economics from ECARES, Université libre de Bruxelles, and is a graduate of the Advanced Studies Program in International Economic Policy Research at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. In 2007-2008 Malwina worked at Bruegel, a European think-tank, on projects related to law and economics.