66. The representative of the European Communities agreed that this was an issue on which Members were perhaps not too far away from agreement. As pointed out in the Chairman's statement, it had to be recognized that such information might not be available in all cases. The issue of date of protection was clearly linked to the question of the instrument by which the geographical indication was protected. Reiterating that the EC proposal would not affect the freedom of every Member to implement the obligations under Section 3 of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement in the way that best fitted their legal systems, he said that, if the information on the date was available, then it should be provided. Dates were important in many parts of the TRIPS Agreement, such as, for example, in Article 24.5, where the date of protection of a geographical indication in the country of origin was relevant to define the limitation of the rights of the geographical indication vis à-vis a prior trademark. Another example was in Article 24.9, which covered the case where a geographical indication ceased to be protected.
