Enforcement

In January this year Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan called for more efforts to fight copyright infringement and counterfeit products. Following a campaign against online piracy the authorities investigated more than 2,800 cases and withdrew certificates from at least 36 websites and companies. And earlier this month a man was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and fined 2,000 yuan ($320) for illegally publishing copies of the works of Mo Yan, winner of last year's Nobel Prize in literature.

NOAPIP released further details of 36 important copyright cases that it had fought in 2012. The most serious punishment handed out was an 11 year prison sentence while the highest fine was for 3.2 million yuan. The office said that in 2012, 5,331 copyright infringement cases had been solved and more than 40 million pirate items confiscated or destroyed.

For further information, please click here.

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We are pleased to inform you that the ninth issue of the European IPR Helpdesk Bulletin has been released and is now available on-line.

A central thread of this European IPR Helpdesk Bulletin is related to the efficient management of intellectual property (IP) as a tool for commercial gains. From a brief description of an interesting tool put at the disposal of organisations by the Danish patent and trade marks office (DKPTO), to test the efficiency of their strategy, to two others article on IP commercialisation highlights and using customs for intellectual property enforcement, you will be given suggestions and recommendations on how make the most of your intangible assets.

An article specifically on trade marks will tell you that a good brand incontestably brings an added value to the organisations, but the success of the trade mark requires a solid and well prepared strategy. In addition to that, a case study will put forward the way a University Technology Transfer Division can facilitate the process of connecting industry with research institutes (and vice versa) and to actively support the cooperation as a whole.

The usual quiz, information about the new Ambassador scheme and other events of interests will close our quarterly publication, which we hope will be thought-provoking!

The World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center performed an international survey on dispute resolution in technology transactions, such as non-disclosure agreements, license agreements or R&D agreements. This survey had the main goal of assessing the current use in technology-related disputes of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods like arbitration or mediation as compared to court litigation.

According to WIPO this survey allows not only the identification of trends, but also best practices that can help intellectual property right holders in their dispute resolution strategies.

Below see some of the conclusions of this survey:

• Agreements resulting most often to disputes:

a.       disputes occurred in relation to 2% of Respondents’ technology-related agreements;

b.      among technology-related agreements, licenses most frequently give rise to disputes (25% of Respondents). R&D agreements rank second (18%) and are followed by NDAs (16%).

• Choice of Dispute Resolution Clauses:

a.       Court litigation was the most common stand-alone dispute resolution clause (32%), followed by arbitration and mediation. However, respondents generally perceived a trend towards out-of-court dispute resolution mechanisms.

b.      The results show that the respondents spent more time and incurred significantly higher costs in court litigation than in arbitration and mediation.

To see all the conclusions of this survey and for further information, please click here and here.

If you need information on dispute resolution mechanism, check the fact sheet we prepared in collaboration with WIPO and which is available here.

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The European Commission undertook a survey of the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR) outside the EU in 2010.

This survey allowed the Commission to identify those countries where there is a greater level of concern, requiring therefore the Commission to focus its activities and resources on them. According to the Commission, this survey also provides relevant information to IPR right holders, in particular concerning “the potential risks to their IP when engaging in business activities in or with certain third countries”.

This survey is available here.

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The Council of the European Union reached a political agreement on a draft regulation aimed at strengthening the conditions and procedures for action by EU customs authorities with regard to the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

The new regulation will apply as from 1 January 2014 and will replace the current measures that were established under regulation 1383/2003.

When fully implemented, it will further contribute to a single market which ensures more effective protection to right-holders, fuels creativity and innovation and provides consumers with reliable and high-quality products, which should in turn strengthen cross-border transactions between consumers, businesses and traders.

For more information, please click here; to read the proposal in full, here.

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Last week the Internal Market Committee MEPs endorsed new customs rules aimed at giving customs officials better tools to confiscate, store and destroy goods infringing intellectual property rights.

These new rules include:

• accelerated procedures to allow the destruction of goods without a court order (provided there is the agreement of the copyright owner and the importer does not objects);
• new regulations on destruction costs;
• the clarification that medicines in transit may only be confiscated by authorities in case there is substantial likelihood they will enter the EU market.

For further information, please click here.

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According to officials of the State Intellectual Property Office, last year, IP authorities have taken several steps to promote intellectual property protection, for example, special campaigns were waged to combat intellectual property violations and counterfeiting; enforcement plans were issued to guide local IP offices to enhance enforcement inspections in large exhibitions; law enforcement performance was properly evaluated; crucial mechanisms on intellectual property protection were established; programs on improving patent administrative enforcement capacities were about to be drafted; network of enforcement information was duly established.

In 2012, the enforcement capacity of local IP offices has been significantly increased, which played a crucial role in boosting confidence of patent owners, increasing the quantity of patent applications, and bolstering innovation.

In 2012,  IP authorities in China have handled a total of 9,022 IP cases, growing by 199%, in which 2,510 cases were on patent (2,232 patent infringements, up 77.5%, and 278 other disputes, soaring by 929.6%), increasing by 70%.

For further details, please click here.

If you want to learn more about any aspect of intellectual property rights in China and have free, practical, business advice relating to China IPR to European SMEs, you can visit the China IPR SME Helpdesk online portal at www.china-iprhelpdesk.eu.

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At its last competitiveness meeting, the Council of the European Union adopted a resolution approving the launch of an EU customs action plan to combat intellectual property right (IPR) infringements for the period 2013-2017.

The EU customs action plan to combat IPR infringements for the next five years stresses four strategic objectives:

• to effectively implement and monitor the new EU legislation on customs enforcement of IPRs;
• to tackle major trends in the trade of IPR-infringing goods; 
• to tackle the trade of IPR-infringing goods throughout the international supply chain; and 
• to strengthen cooperation with the European Observatory and with law enforcement authorities on infringements of IPRs.

On the same line of thought, the Council released a Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning customs enforcement of intellectual property rights, as agreed by its Permanent Representatives Committee.

To read the entire resolution, please click here; to read the regulation proposal, here.

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The Single Market is full of opportunities, in particular to doing business in another EU country than your own. It is essential that in this process you are aware of your rights. The website Your Europe can certainly help you get the important information on the Internal Market that you need, as Commissioner Barnier explains here.

In this website, you will also find a webpage dedicated to Intellectual Property Rights, with information concerning the European Union and also each Member State. In Your Europe you will find the main Intellectual Property rules in each country, as well as information on further resources and organizations dealing with Intellectual Property at national level.

In Your Europe you will also find a useful catalogue of available online tools and services for business concerning Intellectual Property Rights.

The information is available in all the languages of the European Union.

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Yesterday the Council of the European Union adopted a new resolution on EU Customs after having analysed the Commission’s report on the implementation of the EU Customs Action Plan for the years 2009 to 2012.

The data gathered in the report “show impressive results with almost 115 million detained articles and the acceptance of more than 20.000 applications for actions lodged by right-holders in 2011. The estimated value of the equivalent genuine products approached 1.3 billion euro. Internet sales have boosted the number of cases in postal traffic, which tripled between 2009 and 2011.” The Council therefore concludes that it is important to maintain an EU approach on the enforcement of IPR through customs.

Thus, the Council prepared a new Action Plan for Customs for the period 2013 to 2017, which the Commission in co-operation with the Member States should implement.

For further information please click here.

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