On 1 July the European Commission adopted an action plan to address infringements of intellectual property rights in the EU (COM(2014) 392/2). The action plan intends to shift the attention of enforcement policies and actions from individuals infringing IP rights towards commercial scale infringers as they are viewed as the most harmful according to the Commission.
The EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, Michel Barnier commented on the new plan stating: “Rather than penalising the individual for infringing intellectual property rights, often unknowingly, the actions set out here pave the way towards a ‘follow the money’ approach, with the aim of depriving commercial-scale infringers of their revenue flows”.
An action plan is deemed necessary by the Commission due to the high importance of IP-rights for the European market. According to the communication IPR-intensive sectors account for around 39% of EU GDP. The number of new European patent, Community trade marks and Community designs registrations more than doubled between 2003 and 2012. At the same time IP infringements also rose to an all-time high; from less than 27,000 cases of goods suspected of infringing intellectual property rights registered by EU border control in 2005, to 90,000 cases in 2012.