81. The representative of Switzerland said Article 23.4 specified that the system must "facilitate the protection of geographical indications". That meant, for instance, that the multilateral register to be established should provide governments with an instrument which would facilitate their task to implement the protection of geographical indications as required by the TRIPS Agreement. It should, for example, help authorities - trademark examiners, judges or customs authorities - to determine in a particular case whether they were dealing with a geographical indication or not. Producers would also have a tool for facilitating the enforcement of their geographical indications with the reversal of the burden of proof in litigation. At the same time, the register could serve as a source of information as to the legitimacy of the use of an indication for their products. However, to facilitate protection of geographical indications in the manner as set out, it was important to create a register that had legal effect and was binding on all WTO Members. The creation of a simple database would not achieve such facilitation of protection. He underlined that the establishment of a register with legal effect would not change the current level of protection granted by Section 3 of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement; the register would, however, effectively facilitate the protection of a particular geographical indication, as opposed to a simple database in which the listing of a geographical indication had no legal effect at all.
