Mr Lászlo Kovács, European Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Union wrote an interesting article to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Customs Union. Is there something to celebrate you might ask yourself?
Well at least the Commissioner is belligerent to fight counterfeit and pirated products:
“The growing trend in counterfeiting in some health-threatening sectors like foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals or spare parts is worrying. The EU is a target market of fake products, and China the main source of production, with almost 80 % of all articles seized by EU customs coming from there. Chinese people and companies are equally affected by this illegal industry. But we can do something about this. The EU is committed to strengthen customs cooperation with China in the fight against counterfeiting and the enforcement of IPR. We want to see concerete results in the shape of less counterfeited products on our markets. I am confident that this year, the EU and China can agree on an ambitious strategy to effectively reduce trade in counterfeit goods.“
If the EU wants to see concrete results, a plaudible goal, it should consider applying the enforcement/infringement ratio, as IP Dragon suggested here and in its thesis, see here.
Read Mr Kovács article he wrote for the China Daily here.
