On Tuesday 26 April, the European Court of Auditors published a report in which it criticises certain persistent shortcomings in the EU’s legal framework for the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) and highlights the lack of harmonisation of the various national systems.
In detail, the report highlights the weaknesses of the EU’s regulatory framework for designs (98/71/EC) as “obsolete” and laments the lack of an EU-wide protection regime for all products.
Furthermore, the Court of Auditors regrets that the EU geographical indications framework does not apply to non-agricultural products, such as crafts, industrial designs or models.
The auditors also question the EU fee mechanism, because of the existing disparities in the fees applied by the national authorities of the Member States. In this respect, the report also considers that the criteria set within the EU for setting tax levels are not adequate. The EU Intellectual Property Office has accumulated a €300 million surplus in its accounts, specifically in the 2020 balance sheet.
Finally, the report points to the fact that the IPR Enforcement Directive is not uniformly applied across the EU and that inconsistencies and weaknesses in customs controls at national level undermine enforcement and the fight against counterfeiting. There are €83 billion in losses every year in the EU, according to the European Court of Auditors.
“The existing EU framework does not offer the protection that intellectual property deserves. We hope that our recommendations will help the EU achieve the level of protection that the single market needs”, summarised Ildikó Gáll-Pelcz, the person in charge of the report.
Read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/1cy (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)