The draft Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, issued by the Commission in January last year, is intended to aid rights holders in their fight against counterfeiting and piracy. It could result in increased fines and prison sentences for those infringing the rights of patent, copyright and trade mark holders.
The UK Government is currently consulting on the draft, but the Commission proposals have already been subjected to criticism, with the music industry labelling them "inadequate" in tackling piracy.
In November the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee approved an amended draft, and the Council has now issued a third version, in the form of a draft common position paper.
According to EDRi:
"The Council paper unites many of the worst proposals on this Directive so far, while carefully working around most of the good ones."
One problem identified by EDRi is the scope of the proposals, which are extremely wide and include patents – an element removed from the Directive by the Legal Affairs Committee. The new draft also provides for penal sanctions to apply to all types of IP infringements.
While the draft was discussed on Tuesday last week at a meeting between Council and Commission officials and Members of the European Parliament, the Council has made it clear that the proposals are in a preliminary stage, and that more meetings will be necessary before an agreement is reached.
However, the time factor is an issue because, according to EDRi, all parties want to see the Directive adopted before the enlargement of the EU takes place later this year.
The next meeting is scheduled to take place tomorrow, says EDRi.
