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An EU perspective on ACTA

26/06/2013
Secretive negotiations are underway for an international anti-counterfeiting deal. But what will ACTA mean for Europe? Marlous Stal-Hilders of Nederlandsch Octrooibureau explains

Negotiations on a new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) were launched back in 2007 with the aim of creating an international framework to better enforce intellectual property rights. The plan is not to do this by developing new IP rights but rather by seeking international standards on how to take measures against large-scale infringements of these rights. At this stage negotiations are still ongoing. The question is this: from a European perspective, why is this agreement required?

Much of Europe's manufacturing industry is dependant on intellectual property rights. Examples include innovative industries and companies that produce high-quality products and brands. Counterfeiting obviously has a major impact by interfering with economic growth, employment and tax revenues.

The economic significance of IP rights is perfectly illustrated in US President Obama's speech in which he supported the ACTA negotiations at the US Export Import Bank on March 11 2010:

We are going to aggressively protect our intellectual property. Our single greatest asset is the innovation and the ingenuity and creativity of the American people. It is essential to our prosperity and it will only become more so in this century. But it's only a competitive advantage if our companies know that someone else can't just steal that idea and duplicate it with cheaper inputs and labour. There's nothing wrong with other people using our technologies, we welcome it – we just want to make sure that it's licensed and that American business is getting paid appropriately. That's why USTR is using the full arsenal of tools available to crack down on practices that blatantly harm our business, and that includes negotiating proper protections and enforcing our existing agreements, and moving forward on new agreements, including the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

In addition to the economic significance of counterfeiting, social effects too have a role in considering whether to initiate negotiations. The development of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and food and drink is interfering with the proper protection of consumers' rights and public health.

The problem in numbers

Some statistics illustrate the seriousness of the case: In 2008 the number of goods that were considered "suspicious" at the European borders had increased by 126%. This percentage concerned some 178 million items (compared to approximately 79 million in 2007); 44% of these goods were CDs and DVDs, followed closely by cigarettes and clothing (10%). In addition to cigarettes (which obviously threaten the health and safety of European consumers) 11% of the confiscated goods consisted of medicines, toys, personal care articles and food and beverages; 54% of the total number of products arrived from China. Nevertheless, with regard to major product categories that are affecting the health and safety of European consumers it should be noted that when it comes to fake food and beverages the main export country is Indonesia. Most counterfeit medicines were provided by India, while most fake cigarettes were shipped by the United Arab Emirates.

It is a fact that the trading of counterfeited products is no longer the domain of small groups of individuals, but usually rather that of carefully prepared organisations (usually the same organisations trafficking drugs). Given these circumstances the European Community is in need of international co-operation and harmonised rules to ensure rules on intellectual property rights are enforced.

(Source: Managing IP, May 2010)

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