euenforcement
8 August 2013Copyright

EU announces €1bn crackdown on IP infringement

Custom controllers across Europe have seized IP infringing goods totalling close to €1 billion, a report has shown.

Throughout 2012, more than 39 million different items were seized at European borders clocking up a total retail value of €991.9m.

The report, released by the European Commission on August 6, gave details of all seizures carried out at ports and custom controls across the continent, offering comparisons to the previous year.

In 2011 the total stood at €1.2bn with 114m items seized.

The UK was the most proactive throughout the last year, making more than 4m seizures.

Among the most commonly detained goods Europe-wide were cigarettes, which accounted for 30 percent of all seizures.

In total, 94 percent of all seizures were for trademark infringements while just four per cent related to patent or copyright infringement, a statistic which Avi Freeman, partner at London based law-firm Beck Greener, welcomed.

“It’s quite right that trademark infringement is the highest on the list,” he said.

“In custom seizures it’s often the rights holder who is the first to know when something infringing on their products has been seized.

“With trademarks this is pretty straight forward, if a big box of Burberry hats is found the rights holder could quickly say whether it belongs to them or not. However, when it comes to patents and designs it’s almost impossible to know straight away, it takes time, effort and often a court case.”

As a result of the seizures, 76 per cent resulted in the products being destroyed while 13 percent resulted in lawsuits.

China remains the main perpetrator, exporting infringing items with retail value of more than €500m from its shores.

Other countries which appeared high on the list for exporting infringing items include, Morocco for foodstuffs, Hong Kong for CDs and DVDs and Bulgaria for packaging material.

Freeman added: “It is worth noting that while most of the counterfeit items have come from China a vast majority of the world’s products are also made there so it’s not surprising that counterfeits are among them.”

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