C 205/34
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
20.5.2022
Thursday 11 November 2021
40.
Points out the link between IP crime and organised and serious international crime; welcomes, therefore, the Council’s decision to put IP infringements back on the list of EU crime priorities in the framework of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT) for the forthcoming cycle 2022-2025, and asks the Council to maintain them on that list and to enhance cross-border cooperation between national authorities, the EUIPO, Europol, the EU Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF);
41.
Welcomes the fact that the Commission intends to come up with a EU toolbox against counterfeiting in order to ameliorate cooperation between rights holders, public authorities, law enforcement authorities at national and EU level, and intermediaries by further clarifying roles and responsibilities, with the aim of facilitating effective information and data sharing between key actors, promoting the use of new tools and the tackling of counterfeiting activities; calls on the Commission to take concrete actions to monitor wilful infringement of IPRs, including where infringement is used in bad faith as a deliberate commercial strategy, and to push for greater control and cross-border cooperation between customs agencies as part of the fight against the import of counterfeit products; calls the Commission to consider creating a similar EU toolbox to fight against other IPR infringements;
42.
Stresses that long-term education on IP in schools, on counterfeiting and piracy would also be necessary in order to change the willingness to consume IPR-infringing goods and services; calls on the Member States, therefore, to cooperate with EUIPO in order to launch awareness campaigns, including in the field of 3D printing; recalls that 3D printing technology may raise some specific legal concerns regarding all areas of IP law, such as copyright, patents, designs, three-dimensional trademarks and geographical indications;
43.
Calls on the Commission to continue protecting IPRs and promoting enforcement in non-EU countries, including through an increase in funding for targeted EU technical cooperation programmes and capacity building, such as the three ongoing IP Key cooperation programmes with China, South-East Asia and Latin America and the joint partnership with the African continent to promote better generation and management of IP, and by supporting IP regimes that enhance local agricultural development; encourages, in this context, the Commission, on the basis of the EU’s experience, to assist policymakers and enforcement authorities and provide them with knowledge and guidelines for improving their capacity to tackle IPR infringements, and to promote feasible solutions, which could significantly reduce costs and simplify the procedures for obtaining, maintaining and enforcing the protection of IPRs, as well as to provide information to rights holders about the changing infringement landscape and the supply of counterfeit goods;
New challenges for IP policy-making
44.
Highlights that IP protection related to AI technologies is important and should be duly considered, and that even though current rules on the protection of computer-implemented inventions by patents may cover AI technologies, there is a need for clear criteria for the protection of inventions generated with the assistance of AI technologies; asks the Commission, therefore, in cooperation with the EPO and EUIPO, to provide legal certainty on this subject and to follow the issue closely at international level in the WIPO;
45.
Encourages the Member States to transpose the provisions of the Copyright Directive without delay and in a manner which reflects the agreement struck by the co-legislators to improve the protection it provides, and to allow exceptions such as access to online education and digitised cultural heritage; calls on the Commission to monitor buy-out contracts to ensure fair remuneration of creators based on copyright or authors’ rights; underlines that the lack of harmonisation of rules on authorship and copyright ownership can lead to divergent national solutions for AI-assisted works;
46.
Underlines that, despite a high level of harmonisation of IP rights across Europe, there is still a lack of efficient cross-border enforcement of these rights in the EU;