sutton043

The first Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List has been published by the European Commission (EC) today. It identifies marketplaces, registrars and hosting providers located outside the EU which are engaged in facilitating substantial counterfeiting and piracy.  Background   On 22 January 2018, the EC launched the public consultation with the aim to establish its first Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List containing marketplaces located outside the EU.  The Watch List is part of one of the measures adopted by the EU (reported by this Kat here ) with the aim of stepping up the fight against counterfeiting and piracy, by raising “consumer awareness concerning the environmental, product safety and other risks of purchasing” on the marketplaces identified on the Watch-List, and encouraging “their operators and owners to crack down on intellectual property abuse”.  The findings   The Watch List is divided into four chapters covering online marketplaces offering content p...

This Kat is pleased to put her paws on Anti-Counterfeiting: Practice and Procedure , written by Ralph Wehrle, a solicitor with over 25 years of experience in the area.  The book provides an overview of the criminal and civil law applicable in England and Wales, as well as other actions that may be taken to prevent counterfeiting. The book is divided into seven parts. In Part I, some highlights of the trade in infringing products are provided. First, the distinction between counterfeit and pirated goods is established, recognizing that the term counterfeit “is often used colloquially to refer to any product that imitates a genuine one but has been produced and/or distributed without the appropriate authority of a rights holder”. For the author, however, “counterfeit" refers to a product infringing a trademark, while "pirated" refers to a product infringing copyright.  Various trends in relation to the industries worst affected by counterfeiting (e.g. fashion and pharmace...