133. The Chairman recalled that Article 24.2 provided that the Council shall keep under review the application of the provisions of the GI section of the Agreement. The principal tool used to coordinate the review process had been a Checklist of Questions contained in document IP/C/13 and Add.1, which a number of Members had submitted, but many had so far not completed.
134. He recalled that, at its meeting in March 2010, the Council had agreed to encourage Members to share information on and notify bilateral agreements related to the protection of geographical indications, which they had entered into. This had already produced some useful and informative material. He therefore encouraged any Member that was party to any such bilateral agreement and had not yet shared such information with the Council to do so.
135. As the question of geographical indication protection remained a continuing interest and discussion, he also urged those delegations that had not yet provided responses to the Checklist of Questions to consider doing so. Equally, those Members that had already provided responses could provide updates to the extent there had been any significant changes to the way they provided protection to geographical indications. He said that there was a considerable benefit to having up to date, accurate and geographically more representative material available as the basis of this ongoing review process.
