The number of counterfeit or pirated goods seized at the borders
of the EU increased by over 800% in the years between 1998 and
2002, according to the Commission's figures, and the intercepted
goods – almost 85 million in 2002 – are expected to be only the tip
of the iceberg.
The Commission warns that all sectors of the EU economy, from
cereal boxes and cigarettes to seeds and aeroplane parts, are being
affected by the practice – and that it is not limited solely to
luxury brands and CDs.
"Some of these fakes, like pharmaceuticals and foodstuffs
constitute an outright danger to the public, while others undermine
the survival of EU's most innovative sectors," said EU Trade
Commissioner Pascal Lamy yesterday.
"Piracy and counterfeiting continue to grow every year and have
become industries, increasingly run by criminal organisations. This
is a serious problem for us but also for third countries whose
companies are also suffering the consequences of violation of their
own intellectual property rights," he added.
The Commission has over the past few years adopted various
Directives and Regulations aimed at tackling the problem within the
EU. It has now turned its attention to the infringements of
European intellectual property rights (IPR) taking place beyond its
borders.
The Strategy announced yesterday focuses on existing
multilateral and bilateral agreements between countries, the
commitments made by every member of the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) and on the WTO's intellectual property agreement, known as
the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs)
Agreement.
The strategy proposes that the EU:
- Identify priority countries – focusing on the most problematic
countries in terms of IPR violations. These countries will be
identified according to a regular survey to be conducted by the
Commission among all stakeholders, the last one of which identified
China, Thailand, Ukraine, Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey and
South Korea as the worst IPR offenders.
- Raise awareness – promoting initiatives to raise public
awareness about the impact of counterfeiting (loss of foreign
investment and technology transfer, risks to health, link with
organised crime, etc.) and making available to the public and to
the authorities of third countries concerned, a "Guidebook on
Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights".
- Encourage political dialogue, incentives and technical
co-operation – ensuring that technical assistance provided to third
countries focuses on IPR enforcement, especially in priority
countries; exchanging ideas and information with other key
providers of technical co-operation, like the World Intellectual
Property Organisation (WIPO), the US or Japan, with the aim of
avoiding duplication of efforts and sharing of best-practices.
- Use the IPR mechanisms in multilateral, bi-regional and
bilateral agreements raising enforcement concerns in the
framework of these agreements more systematically; consulting
trading partners with the aim of launching an initiative in the WTO
TRIPs Council; sounding the alert on the growing dimension of the
problem; identifying the causes and proposing solutions and
strengthening IPR enforcement clauses in bilateral agreements.
- Make more use of dispute settlement processes and sanctions –
the Trade Barriers Regulation or of bilateral agreements, in cases
of evidence of violations of TRIPs; and, in addition to the WTO
dispute settlement process, the dispute settlement mechanisms
included in bilateral agreements in case of non-compliance with the
required standards of IPR protection.
- Create public-private partnerships – supporting/participating
in local IP networks established in relevant third countries; using
mechanisms already put in place by Commission services (IPR Help
Desk and Innovation Relay Centres) to exchange information with
right-holders and associations; build on the co-operation with
companies and associations that are very active in the fight
against piracy/counterfeiting.
