Global

Details

  • Service: Tax, Global Indirect Tax, Global Compliance Management Services
  • Type: Regulatory update
  • Date: 7/24/2012

European Union - Imports infringing intellectual property rights (2011) 

July 24:   The European Commission publishes an annual report describing the customs detentions of articles suspected of infringing intellectual property rights (IPR), including trademarks, copyrights and patents. The EC on 24 July 2012 released the report for 2011.

Summary

In 2011, EU Customs detained almost 115 million products suspected of violating intellectual property rights (IPR) compared to 103 million in 2010.


  • The number of intercepted cases increased by 15% compared to 2010.
  • The value of the intercepted goods represented nearly €1.3 billion compared to €1.1 billion in 2010.
  • The top categories of articles stopped by customs were medicines (24%), packaging material (21%) and cigarettes (18%).
  • Products for daily use and products that could be potentially dangerous to the health and safety of consumers accounted for a total of 28.6% of the total amount of detained articles, compared to 14.5% in 2010.
  • The increase in number of detained postal packages continued in 2011, with 36% of the detentions concerning medicines.

In terms of where the “fake goods” originated, China continued to be the main source, accounting for 73% of all infringing articles.


For certain product categories other countries remain the main sources such as:


  • Turkey for foodstuffs
  • Panama for alcoholic drinks
  • Thailand for soft drinks
  • Hong Kong for mobile phones

Approximately 90% of all detained products were either destroyed or a court case was initiated to determine the infringement.




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