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European IP Bulletin, Issue 10, March - Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property
On 9 March 2004, the European Parliament voted in favour of the Directive on measures and procedures to ensure the enforcement of intellectual property rights.
The Directive is the result of the launch by the European Commission, on 30 November 2000, of an action plan to combat counterfeiting and piracy in the single market. The aims of the action plan were to assess the effectiveness of the existing legislation and to propose a number of initiatives to improve the situation. It emerged from consultations held by the Commission that there were major disparities between Member States as regards the means of enforcing intellectual property rights, which often resulted in pirates and counterfeiters carrying out illicit activities in those Member States where enforcement mechanisms were applied less effectively.
As a consequence, the proposed Directive seeks to create a level playing field for the enforcement of intellectual property rights in EU countries. Its main objective is to approximate legislative systems so as to ensure a high, equivalent and homogeneous level of protection in the Internal Market.
The proposed Directive, which does not affect substantive law on intellectual property, is based on the practice of those States where the legislation has proven to be most effective. It covers infringement of all intellectual property rights.
The measures put forward by the proposed Directive include provisional measures to preserve relevant evidence such as seizure of infringing goods and material used in the production and/or distribution of such goods, injunctions aimed at prohibiting the continuation of the infringement, evidence-gathering powers for judicial authorities and powers to force offenders to compensate right holders for lost income, such as the blocking of bank accounts and financial assets.
Despite its noble intent, the proposed Directive has attracted controversy and criticism. Indeed, many fear that the proposed Directive, which is supposed to be aimed at “big” offenders and to concentrate on infringements carried out for commercial purposes or which cause significant harm, will also greatly affect small scale, non-commercial activities.
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