Europaudvalget 2007
SEK (2007) 1377
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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
Brussels, 23.10.2007
SEC(2007)1377 final/2
DECLASSIFIED PART
RECOMMENDATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL
to authorise the Commission to open negotiations of a plurilateral
anti-counterfeiting trade agreement
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A.
1.
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
The protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) is important not only for
promoting innovation and creativity, but also for developing employment and
improving competitiveness. It should allow the inventor or creator to derive a
legitimate profit from his/her invention or creation while maintaining an appropriate
balance between protection and access to intellectual property, exclusive rights and
competition. It should also allow the widest possible dissemination of works, ideas
and new know-how. At the same time, it should not hamper freedom of expression,
the free movement of information, or the protection of personal data.
However, without effective means of enforcing intellectual property rights,
innovation and creativity are discouraged and investment diminished. It is therefore
necessary to ensure that the substantive law on intellectual property, which is
nowadays largely part of the
acquis communautaire,
is applied and enforced
effectively internationally.
The proliferation of infringements of intellectual property rights poses an ever-
increasing threat to the sustainable development of the world economy. The
consequences of such infringements include (1) depriving legitimate businesses and
their workers of income; (2) discouraging innovation and creativity; (3) threatening
consumer health and safety; (4) providing an easy source of revenue for organized
crime; and (5) loss of tax revenue.
At international level, all Member States, as well as the Community itself as regards
matters within its competence, are bound by the Agreement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property (the TRIPS Agreement), approved, as part of the
multilateral negotiations of the Uruguay Round, by Council Decision 94/800/EC(3)
and concluded in the framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The TRIPs Agreement contains, in particular, provisions on the means of enforcing
intellectual property rights, which are minimum common standards applicable at
international level and implemented in all Member States.
There are also international conventions to which all Member States are parties and
which also contain provisions on the means of enforcing intellectual property rights.
These include, in particular, the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial
Property, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works,
and the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of
Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations.
Having identified IPR as one of their key competitive assets, there is a growing
concern in the European Union, as well as in several other countries, about the
increasing misappropriation of the intellectual property of their most competitive
industries around the world. This led to a number of initiatives on the multilateral
(WTO, G8, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),
World Health Organisation (WHO)), bilateral (Free Trade Agreements with high IPR
standards, IPR dialogues, technical assistance) and even unilateral (US 301 Special,
EU Priority countries' list) fields. In the last few months, there have been new calls
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for a strengthening of the international IPR framework, namely in the framework of
the G8 and the OECD.
8.
The main proposal for the strengthening of IPR enforcement practices and rules is an
initiative presented by the United States of America and Japan for a new Anti-
Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
ACTA will establish, among nations committed to strong IPR protection, a common
standard for IPR enforcement to combat global infringements of intellectual property
rights by increasing international cooperation and coordination among enforcement
authorities, promoting technical assistance and partnerships with industry, defining
the framework of practices that contribute to effective enforcement of IPRs, and
strengthening relevant IPR enforcement measures themselves. This last chapter
should include provisions on civil, criminal and customs measures, as well as
procedural rules. It also includes provisions on dispute settlement.
It is important for the European Union to be at the forefront of efforts to improve IPR
enforcement and to work with other partners to make them as effective as possible. It
would be politically damaging to do otherwise. Joining the ACTA negotiating
process will send a strong message of our concern for the key competitiveness tool
that is IPR. But, more importantly, it will have positive effects on the situation in the
field, resulting from the increased level of cooperation between enforcement
authorities and from the harmonised high standards of IPR enforcement.
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(Recommendation and annex: EU RESTRICTED)
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