EU Commission changes rules to prevent piracy wars

[Len]

The EU executive has proposed the layout of a new list with foreign markets where products are falsified or pirated and then imported to the EU, along with the framework of a package of measures to strengthen intellectual property in the bloc and fight piracy, as according to the Commission, counterfeiting or piracy affects 5% of goods imported into the Union, the equivalent of € 85,000 million.

Aiming to monitor the markets and identify those in which these rights are infringed, European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Industry, Elzbieta Bienkowska, said that the list will be created in collaboration with the European Observatory on Infringements of intellectual property rights and will be updated periodically.

The first steps to get to have the list ready to be published in the second semester of 2018, is the public consultation that the European Commission will initiate, in order to gather information on these markets, including their location, the volume of traffic, the type of goods or services or the estimated damage to rights holders. The data mentioned above will be verified with the help of the Observatory will be used in the selection of the markets that will be placed on the list.

Along with the process that will make the list possible, Brussels also proposed on Wednesday a stronger framework to protect community businesses against piracy in China, Southeast Asia and Latin America. The proposal will strengthen intellectual property programs in China, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and all Latin American countries, in order to help European companies that are already in those countries or trying to access those markets and to better protect rights outside the EU.

This way, the European Commission aims to encourage companies, particularly SMEs and start-up companies, to invest in innovation and creativity, as the Vice President of the European Commission for Employment, Jyrki Katainen said.

A series of guidelines and recommendations to create a system of “special patents for standards”, that is, those that protect “key” technologies that are part of global industry standards, such as WiFi or the 4G were also tabled by Katainen on Wednesday, as soon as the College of the Commissioners weekly rendezvous-vous ended.

Allowing product manufacturers to access technologies with transparent and predictable rules on licensing and at the same time that patent owners are rewarded for their R & D investments and standardization activities according to the EU executive, that also updated the guidelines on how to apply the 2004 Directive that regulates intellectual property rights.

Katainen also clarified that the Commission continues to support industry-led initiatives to fight against infringements of intellectual and industrial property, such as voluntary agreements on website advertising, payment services or transport and shipping and believes that these agreements can lead to a faster intervention against counterfeiting and piracy than actions before the courts and that they complement the guidelines for online platforms to fight against the illegal content recently published by the European Commission.