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Customs enforcement of intellectual property rights: European Commission publishes Annual Report for 2014
Practical Law Legal Update 0-619-8127 (Approx. 4 pages)
Customs enforcement of intellectual property rights: European Commission publishes Annual Report for 2014
by Practical Law EU
| Published on 30 Oct 2015 • European Union |
On 27 October 2015, the European Commission published its 2014 Annual Report on EU customs enforcement of intellectual property rights.
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The European Commission, on 27 October 2015, published its 2014 Annual Report on EU customs enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR).
According to the Report, almost 95,200 detention cases were opened in 2014 or a total of almost 35.5 million articles with a domestic retail value of over EUR617 million.
The Report contains statistical information about the detentions made under customs procedures and includes data on the description, quantities and value of the goods, their provenance, the means of transport and the type of IPR that may have been infringed. The statistics are established by the Commission, based on the data transmitted by the member states, in accordance with the relevant EU customs legislation.
On 27 October 2015, the European Commission published its 2014 Annual Report on EU customs enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR).
According to the Report, almost 95,200 detention cases were opened in 2014 or a total of almost 35.5 million articles with a domestic retail value of over EUR617 million.
The Report contains statistical information about the detentions made under customs procedures and includes data on the description, quantities and value of the goods, their provenance, the means of transport and the type of IPR that may have been infringed. The statistics are established by the Commission, based on the data transmitted by the member states, in accordance with the relevant EU customs legislation.
The 2014 Report finds that:
- China continues to be the main country from which goods suspected of infringing an IPR entered the EU, accounting for 80% of all detained products. Other countries were the main source for specific product categories, such as Panama for alcoholic beverages, Morocco for beverages, Thailand for ink cartridges and toners.
- The top categories of detained articles were cigarettes (35% of the total), followed by toys (10%), medicines (8%), clothing (5%) and foodstuff (4%). In 2014, five out of six product categories remained the same as in 2013 but the order is different and foodstuff appears in the top six this year.
- The number of cases relating to postal and courier traffic made up 81% of all detentions. For the fifth consecutive year, medicine was again the top category, with 18% of this total. In 27% of all cases goods were destroyed under the new small consignment procedure, introduced by the new Regulation (EU) 608/2013 of the EP and of the Council concerning customs enforcement of IPR and repealing Council Regulation (EC) 1383/2003 (see Legal update, Customs enforcement of intellectual property rights: new Counterfeit Goods Regulation published in Official Journal).
- Products for daily use and that would be potentially dangerous to the health and safety of consumers amounted for a total of 28.6%, compared to 25.2% in 2013.
- In 92% of the cases of customs detentions (translating to 75% of the articles), the goods were either destroyed, or the right-holder initiated a court case to establish the IP infringement. In 24% of the court cases, goods were released because the right-holder did not react to the notification by customs (18%) or they were original goods (6%).
The Anti-Counterfeit and Piracy Information System (COPIS) also became operational in 2014. This database is used by customs authorities to register the applications for actions and infringements by rights-holders.
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