INI/2009/2178
From Euwiki
Enforcement of intellectual property rights in the internal market change log oeil
See also COM/2009/0467
JURI (responsible) Gallo Marielle
IMCO (opinion) Roithová Zuzana
ITRE (opinion) Rübig Paul
Green shadow, Christian Engström, see http://christianengstrom.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/ip-observatory-in-juri/ and http://christianengstrom.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/ip-observatory-amendments-in-juri/
- cilvil liberties assessments - separation of IPRs - enhance real cooperation - no ACTA endorsement before Lisbon 218 solved
Contents |
Enhancing the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the internal market
Baseline report:
Commission communication: http://www.erikjosefsson.eu/sites/default/files/Communication.pdf (12 pages)
'SMEs and IPR': consistent through document: SMEs need to be encouraged to take part in the IPR system, it is difficult for SMEs to protect their IPR, IPR is important for investment for SMEs (true!)
Best quote (relating to the composition of the Observatory for monitoring IPR enforcements): Member States will be asked to appoint a national representative and the participation of stakeholders will need to reflect a broad range of European and national bodies, representing the different economic sectors most concerned by and most experienced in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy. European consumers also need to be properly represented and invited to play an active role. In this way the Observatory could help consumers to become active and responsible partners. (p 7)
'watch out for section 4.2 on stakeholder dialogues!' (for instance partnerships between ISPs and recording labels?) enforcement activities should be regulated by law to ensure due process(?)
Lets also keep in mind that the consistent references to pirated medicines causing harm to consumers' health are simply not true: theres tonnes of generic medicines that are as safe as the next medicine. really. the generics industry lives from making safe generics. its their business. we have nothing to fear from them, and neither does the commission.
Preliminary statements (border measures and state of the art enforcement):
Statistics on customs seizures: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/customs/customs_controls/counterfeit_piracy/statistics/index_en.htm
Effects of counterfeiting on EU SMEs (Technopolis) : http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/document.cfm?action=display&doc_id=4506&userservice_id=1&request.id=0 (150 pages)
IPR and SMEs in ASEAN: http://www.asean.org/aadcp/repsf/docs/03-005-FinalReport.pdf
Industrial Rights Strategy for Europe COM/2008/0465: http://ec.europa.eu/prelex/detail_dossier_real.cfm?CL=en&DosId=197283
Consumer strategy for the EU: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/strategy/index_en.htm (note: read strategy in full)
Proposed point of view
The Communication on Enforcement of intellectual property rights in the internal market not only lacks an approach to consumer interaction with the legal system as well as consumer empowerment, but also seems to suggest that consumers in general need to be supervised and educated by legislators in order to understand limitations imposed on them by legislators in contrary to actual consumer behaviour, thereby failing to fulfill the Commission's own approach to consumer empowerment and participation.
The Communication further mingles copyright infringement in the digital environment, often conducted by citizens in their free-time, with professional and commercial trademark counterfeiting and patent violation, contributing to the confusion around the impact, assessment and necessary measures within each intellectual property field. This consistent fallacy, both in the Union's previous efforts in the area, and in the Union's relations with third parties, needs to be ended for the Union to be able to adapt coherent strategies that are useful to its citizens and commerce.
The Communication mentions as an important role of the Observatory introducing SMEs to innovation and patenting, while all present evidence seems to suggest that SMEs in fact have little time and money to spend on IPR. They also, to a larger extent than large firms, seem to be investing in fast, versatile innovation to fend off competitors, making the administration times for patent applications too long to keep up with their business cycles. Correspondingly, the Union's SME policies should take encouraging small scale innovation into account by other means than an Observatory for IPR, and instead support SMEs in those areas SMEs actually require support.
Points of reference
"national regulatory authorities and other relevant authorities may promote cooperation between undertakings providing electronic communications networks and/or services and sectors interested in the promotion of lawful content in electronic communication networks and services" http://euwiki.org/2002/22/EC/SECOND_READING#Article_33
