The Madrid Agreement, despite being in place since 1892 and with a large number of nations adhering, has not found universal acceptance. After many years of debate and proposals, a new trademark treaty, the Protocol, was launched. Supplementing the Agreement, the Protocol was an effort to attract more nations, such as the remaining European countries and important industrial countries such as Canada, Japan and the United States, to join the Madrid Union by liberalizing certain previously objected to provisions of the Agreement.