EU and China Commit to Tackle Online Counterfeiting

The European Union, the largest single economy in the world, and China held a conference on 2nd June in order to address the legal, operational and business solutions to tackle Intellectual Property infringements in e-commerce. As two of the world’s leading economies, the EU and China working together in the enforcement of protection for Intellectual Property is a vital aspect of bilateral relations. The conference was organized by the European Commission and the Ministry of Commerce of China, including backing from IP Key, focuses on facilitating the development of an intellectual property rights framework in China that is increasingly effective, fair, transparent, and otherwise based up international best practice, in order to reaffirm the relationship between the two from the last EU-China Summit in Brussels.

China’s rise in being a global leader in e-commerce plays an important role in sharing experiences for the sake of mutual benefit. The recently approved 13th Five Year Plan by China has delegated support for driving more innovation in the economy as a key propriety. In order to do this, robust regulation for Intellectual Property is required in order to allow private companies to successfully develop new patents and technologies. Panelists from leading EU and Chinese right holders, right holders associations, e-commerce platforms and other intermediaries discussed procedures for tackling the effects of counterfeits, prevention and the role of services to build partnerships between Intellectual Property owners and e-platforms. Industry representatives engaged in productive discussions to find joint solutions to tackle the issue, which cost as much as 1.7 trillion USD and puts as many as 2.5 million legitimate jobs at risk.

Following the conference, a closed-door meeting between government representatives ensured with the goal of reaching common ground on Intellectual Property policy cooperation affecting the issue of counterfeiting and e-commerce. The vision was laid out in terms of short and long-term goals to be delivered through awareness and legality. The EU and China will work jointly on the future concrete proposal in order to address this global issue of modern Intellectual Property.[Source: IPKey.org]