The European Commission has issued a statement confirming that the Directive on Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (Article 2 of the Directive 2004/48/EC), which came into effect on 30 April 2005, covers, in effect, all intellectual property (IP) rights, including:
- copyright;
- trade mark rights;
- design rights;
- patent rights, including rights derived from supplementary protection certificates;
- trade names, in so far as these are protected as exclusive property rights in the national law concerned; and
- a number of more specialised types of IP.
The EC believes that 'the protection of intellectual property is important not only for promoting innovation and creativity, but also for developing employment and improving competitiveness' and that despite the need to allow the widest possible dissemination of ideas etc., 'without effective means of enforcing intellectual property rights, innovation and creativity are discouraged and investment diminished'.
The directive provides for the usual types of enforcement, such as compensation and injunctions. Interestingly, it also stipulates that infringers can be required to disclose to victims of infringement the names and addresses of the producers, manufacturers, distributors, suppliers and other previous holders of the goods and services, as well as the intended wholesalers and retailers and also information on the quantities produced, manufactured, delivered, received or ordered and the price obtained for the goods or services in question. Such disclosure would assist the qualification of claims in damages.
Please contact a member of our Intellectual Property department for assistance with all IP related matters.
