Violations of intellectual property rights worldwide cost European companies billions of euros in lost revenue and jeopardize thousands of jobs.
"the Protection of intellectual property such as trademarks, patents or geographical indications, is of crucial importance for Europe's growth and our ability to encourage innovation and to remain competitive worldwide," said trade Commissioner of the EU, Phil Hogan.
the European Commission stressed that 82% of total exports the EU accounts for sectors that depend on intellectual property and approximately 121 billion euros or 6.8% of total imports in the EU are counterfeit or pirated.
Updated list of priority countries in the European Commission report on the protection and the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) in third countries is still divided into three categories, reflecting the scale and persistence of issues:
- China
- India, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine;
- Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Malaysia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
China is the source of the dominant share of counterfeit and pirated goods entering the EU, both in value and in volume terms. More than 80% of counterfeit and pirated goods seized by the customs authorities of the EU come from China and Hong Kong.
