The European Commission recently launched a public consultation to establish its first world-wide “Counterfeit and Piracy Watch-List.”
The aim is to identify the marketplaces outside the EU where counterfeiting, piracy or other forms of intellectual property abuse are common practice. The initiative is part of the Commission’s strategy announced in the 2017 Communication “A balanced Intellectual Property enforcement system responding to today’s societal challenges”. Based on stakeholders’ input, the future watch-list will help to raise awareness of consumers that might be buying products in those marketplaces and encourage their operators and owners to crack down on intellectual property abuse.
Commenting, Dids Macdonald, OBE., CEO of ACID & Vice Chair of the Alliance for IP said, “This is very welcome news. Addressing the escalating and devastating issue of global counterfeit and pirated products amounting to around €338 billion worldwide cannot come too soon. I would urge all ACID members and the broader design community to let us have your evidence so that this can be fed into the consultation collectively.”
The Commission will also monitor the measures taken by local authorities to reduce the availability of goods and services infringing intellectual property rights in identified markets.
Intellectual property infringement is a particular scourge on European industry and hampers investment and employment in industries reliant on creativity and innovation. According to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the OECD, trade in counterfeit and pirated products amount to around €338 billion worldwide. The European Union is particularly affected, with counterfeit and pirated products amounting up to around 5% of all imports or as much as €85 billion a year.
Contributions to the public consultation should be sent before 31 March 2018. Please send your evidence to [email protected] or direct to the commission by 16th April 2018 via email.
More information
Public consultation on EU Survey
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