Enforcing trademark rights in Italy and European Union

The European Commission has recently adopted a communication aimed to provide IP right holders with new enforcement legal tools against counterfeiting.

In particular, the Action Plan to address infringements of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the EU has been adopted to fight against the high numbers of infringements of intellectual property rights (IPR) as, for example, 90,000 cases of goods suspected of infringing intellectual property rights in 2012 alone.

The ten specific actions recently adopted can be summarized as follow:

1. Develop and launch a new generation of targeted communication campaigns to raise awareness amongst citizens on the impact of commercial scale IP infringements and thereby help firms that

produce legitimate goods and services.

2. Launch a wide debate on applying due diligence in supply chains. Drawing on its outcome, develop a policy initiative in this field.

3. Agree Memoranda of Understanding to address the profits of commercial scale IP infringements in the online environment, following Stakeholder Dialogues involving advertising service providers, payment services and shippers.

4. Analyze existing national initiatives seeking to improve IP civil enforcement procedures for SMEs in respect of small claims procedures and consider possible action in this field.

5. Review national schemes assisting SMEs to enforce their IP rights; through a Green Paper, consult stakeholders in view of possible future action.

6. Publication of a Green Paper to consult stakeholders through a Green Paper on chargeback schemes which aim to tackle commercial scale online IP infringements. On this basis, explore the scope for taking concrete action in this field.

7 . The Commission will establish a Member State Expert Group on IP Enforcement, where Member States can share best practice on the work within the EU of all their enforcement authorities and be informed on the delivery of this Action Plan.

8. Develop a comprehensive set of sectorial IP enforcement training programmes for Member State authorities in the context of the single market.

9. Compile a guide on best practice to help public authorities avoid purchasing counterfeit products.

10. Publication of a biennial report, IP in the EU economy, for more effective monitoring of the impact of the EU’s IP enforcement.

The actions should be launched and carried out in 2014 and 2015 in order to provide right owners a more favorable and efficient framework to protect is trademarks and related IP rights.  

The enforcement of the action plan demonstrates the critical role the registration of trademarks can play in the EU marketplace in so far is the only one rights able to efficiently protect rights owners against counterfeiting in all 28 EU Countries including Italy.

For more information:

Action Plan on the enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights