 The Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographic Indications. The SCT held its 34th session from November 16 to 18. As it is customary, the committee considered a number of issues in the areas of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographic Indications. In particular, it considered a decision that was taken recently by the WIPO General Assembly directing some work in the area of the new draft design law treaty and in the area of geographical indications. As regards the new draft design law treaty, the committee considered a new revised proposal by the group of African countries as well as a new draft article that was put forward by the chair for consideration. Concerning geographic indications, there was a good exchange of views among various delegations but finally an agreement on future work could not be reached. However, there is some optimism that such an agreement will be reached at the next 35th session of the SCT. Finally, in the area of Trademarks, the committee adopted a reference paper that deals with the protection of country names against registration and use as Trademarks and the SCT directed the secretariat to prepare some further work for future consideration on that matter.