This international conference was very succesfully co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD) to discuss the most recent research and implementing practices of geographical indications (GIs) in the world. 

It brought together more than 200 researchers, public authorities, producers and their collective organizations, public authorities and international organizations, coming from 47 countries representing all the regions of the world: Europe, Asia/Oceania, Africa, South and North America. 

Some of the topics that fed the debates in this conference were: nature and legal definition, public and private management, impacts in the marketplace and outside the market, sustainable development including social dimensions and the protection of biodiversity and environment, relationships with other intellectual property rights, engagement with other formal and informal forms of norm-making, consumers’ welfare, competition policies, technical innovation and terroir effect, collective organization and collaboration, participation and empowerment of local actors.

While the concept of GIs has been considerably internationalized by the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement and whereas the Geneva Act of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)'s Lisbon Arrangement for International GI Registration recently came into force, this conference contributed to identify opportunities for development at the national, regional and international level and to bring new ideas as a source of creative inspiration.