Plan Seeks to Slow Flood of Pirated Goods from Non-EU Nations
Citing an 800% rise in counterfeit and pirated goods intercepted at European Union (EU) borders 1998-2002, the European Commission (EC) approved an action plan Wed. aimed at persuading non-EU countries to clean up their intellectual property (IP) enforcement acts. The strategy covers copyright, patent and trademark violations in all sectors, including Internet piracy, bogus music and software CDs, and DVDs. It claims not to impose any new IP enforcement rules on poor countries, but to help them comply with existing commitments.
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The EC is homing in on 3rd-country IP violators because -- although most World Trade Organization members have enacted minimum enforcement standards -- piracy and counterfeiting have continued to increase. Legislation adopted the past 10 years has made IP rights enforcement vastly more effective within the EU, the Commission said, but those directives don’t help rights holders when violations occur elsewhere.
The strategy sets out 8 action items: (1) Identifying priority countries through a regular poll of interested parties. The EC said the largest violators are China (piracy of CDs, DVDs, VCDs and cassettes as well as “extensive” illegal digital downloads and distribution of movies, music and software); Thailand (general piracy of music, movie, business and game software in all formats); Ukraine (particularly its “acute” level of copying and disseminating unlicensed software); Russia (with high levels of music and Internet piracy); Brazil (mainly copyright violations); Turkey (piracy of music cassettes and CDs); S. Korea (music piracy in all formats); and Indonesia (music, film and software copyright infringement).
(2) Raising IP enforcement concerns more consistently in multilateral and bilateral accords, such as the Trade- Related Aspects of IP Rights (TRIPs) agreement. (3) Holding political discussions with trading partners to clarify that clear, effective IP protection is essential. (4) Providing technical assistance to 3rd countries on IPR enforcement. (5) Using dispute settlement mechanisms in multi- or bilateral agreements -- or sanctions -- to force compliance with IP protection standards. (6) Promoting public-private partnership to fight counterfeiting and piracy. (7) Raising public awareness of IP infringements implications such as growth of organized crime and loss of foreign investment. (8) Improving the exchange of information and coordination between services in charge of different aspects of IPR enforcement.
The Union des Industries de la Communaute europeenne -- which represents 20 million European companies of all sizes -- praised the strategy paper. The organization said growing piracy and counterfeiting deprive rights owners of their investment in R&D, put the integrity and value of IP at stake, and can affect consumer and product safety.
Earlier this month, least-developed countries, meeting in S. Korea under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization, agreed that IP is an important tool for their development and committed to IP institution-building.