European Commission Urged To Fix EU Law Before Addressing IPR Protections In Third Countries

Efforts to revamp protection for and enforcement of intellectual property rights in non-EU countries are welcome, but the European Commission should get Europe’s IPR house in order first, a new draft report by the European Parliament International Trade (INTA) Committee says. Meanwhile, internal IPR reform is advancing on several fronts, said the EC, which gave an update on the various measures.

The 26 February INTA report responds to a 1 July 2014 European Commission communication [pdf] aimed at updating the EU’s 10-year-old strategies for IP rights and protections relating to “third” (non-EU) countries.

The EC noted several changes and challenges that have arisen over the years, including burgeoning customs cases involving IPR breaches, waning support in some sectors of public opinion for IPR systems, and sticky questions about the responsibility of internet service providers and other intermediaries for infringement.

The EC document contained 11 action points for updating EU IPR strategies for third countries. These include regular engagement with stakeholders such as public authorities, civil society and rights holders; better data to support evidence-based policies; more focus on bilateral talks with nations with poor IPR records; and more harmonised EU legislation

The EU should also offer more technical assistance to developing nations as well as to EU rights owners in third countries, the EC said. The Commission is starting to implement the strategy outlined in the communication, said a spokesman.

The draft INTA report, written by MEP Alessia Mosca, of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats and Italy, welcomed the EC proposal to review its strategy, noting that IP-intensive industries generate around 39 percent of the EU’s total economic activity and around 26 percent of all employment. Nevertheless, she told Intellectual Property Watch, the communication has “something lacking.”

Among other things, the statement is short on information about how the EC will achieve its objectives and where the resources will come from, the draft report said. The strategy also fails to adequately recognise the difference between physical counterfeiting of trademarks and patents and violations of copyright, particularly in the digital environment. More basically, Mosca said, the EC should update its internal IPR system before setting policy for protections in third countries.

Internal IP Reforms Coming

Change to the EU IP regime is moving forward, the EC said.

On copyright, the Commission is looking into different solutions for modernising copyright rules to ensure a balance between the interest of consumers and rights holders, an EC official said. There have already been extensive public consultations, stakeholder roundtables and legal and economic studies, and the EC is “currently updating existing data and collecting new information,” she said. An impact assessment of the different options on the table is under way, she said.

“The copyright reform will be presented after the Digital Single Market strategy is adopted in May,” she said.

Work is also progressing on the EC action plan for IPR enforcement, said Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs spokeswoman Lucia Caudet.

The plan won unanimous backing from the Council and is now working its way through the European Parliament. The action plan followed a 2013 EC consultation on directive 2004/48/EC on the enforcement of IP which identified two major challenges: Improving the efficiency of the existing civil enforcement system, particularly for infringements committed on a commercial scale in the digital environment, and maintaining a proper balance between safeguarding IPR and other fundamental rights such as personal data protection. This year, the EC will consider whether any additional measures are needed, she said.

The proposal for an EC trade secrets directive is also progressing, Caudet said. Governments reached provisional agreement in May 2014, and the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee is expected to vote on its report on the directive in April, signalling the start of negotiations with the Council on an agreed text.

“It is difficult to say at this stage when the final outcome could be expected as it is likely that two consecutive Presidencies will need to work on this file: Latvia and Luxembourg,” she said in an email.

The EU unitary patent and patent court are still awaiting ratification by 13 member states (six have done so), said Caudet. The EC, Council and Parliament are also moving to update trademark law, she said, adding, “We hope that the package will be adopted by the end of the first half of this year.”