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Abstract
The dispute "European Communities - Protection of trademarks and
geographical indications for agricultural products and foodstuffs" that opposes
the European - Union to the United States and Australia, has been raised by the
European regulation concerning the protection of geographical indications. This
dispute has two important issues. First, the Panel demonstrated that the
European regulation did not comply with national treatment promulgated by
the TRIPS and the GATT 1994 Agreements. Second, the Panel affirmed the
possibility of coexistence between GIs and identical prior trademarks. This
article considers these two issues and depicts the position of the parties at the
end of the dispute regarding GIs' protection. The first part of this article
presents the conclusion of the Panel concerning national treatment and the
coexistence between GIs and prior trademark. An analysis of the relations
between national treatment and the international harmonization of the rules on
the protection of geographical indications is presented in the second part. This
analysis permits to establish that if the Panel findings do not annihilate the
European system of protection of the geographical indications, the United
States will find advantageous to free ride in geographical indications, refusing
to move toward the European system of protection.