Knowledge and best practice

Pre-operational preparation:

Operations and investigations related to counterfeit goods require a profound knowledge of routes, markets, specificities and the markings used on original products. Together with rights holders, the EUIPO is putting this knowledge at the disposal of enforcers to pave the way for successful operations and investigations.

Experts from Europol, OLAF, DG TAXUD, Eurojust and from the judiciary of the EU Member States provide expertise at these events for enforcers. Best practices and concrete examples are provided by IP rights holders to illustrate how investigations in the sector could be made even more effective.

Regional seminars

The regional seminars are aimed at building knowledge among law enforcement practitioners, such as the police, customs prosecutors and market surveillance authorities with the pertinent competences in the area of intellectual property rights (IPR) infringements. These seminars are organised in different geographic regions for EU Member States and neighbouring countries and also provide the opportunity to enhance regional and cross-border cooperation.

EUIPO-CEPOL training on IP crime

The EUIPO, together with CEPOL, organises a joint annual seminar on infringements of intellectual property rights.

The IP Crime week combines elements of training for the law enforcement authorities of the 27 Member States on the different rights involved on IP crime .

The training week provides information on the latest trends in IPR enforcement and also enables participants and speakers to share best practices in the fight against IPR crime.

Judges’ Seminars:

The Judges’ seminars, which have been organised since 2008, have already established a body of practice among EU judges and prosecutors who regularly deal with intellectual property and enforcement issues. The network comprises over 800 judges and prosecutors from all the EU Member States and beyond, including all types and levels of jurisdiction: civil, commercial, administrative and criminal. Attendance at the seminar is by invitation, and in order to encourage a free exchange of views, the discussions are not held publicly.

The participants of the EUIPO Judges’ Network regularly communicate with each other between seminars and relay judgments and other information on their national practices back to the EUIPO, thereby continuing and enriching the practice.

The European Intellectual Property Prosecutors Network (EIPPN)

In 2015, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (EUROJUST) and the EUIPO launched a cooperation between prosecutors from the EU and other European countries, working on IP crime cases. The network collects and shares experiences and cases and discusses new trends, challenges with emerging technologies, international judicial cooperation measures and other issues of importance when dealing with IP crime. The network has also reached out to prosecutors from some countries outside Europe to enhance cooperation and the sharing of best practices.
The above knowledge-building events are complemented with an online offer on the Virtual Training Centre.

IP enforcement events

The Observatory is also involved in high-level events to ensure policymakers, communicators and decision takers are fully aware of relevant issues surrounding IP. Events are organised by the Observatory and by the Observatory’s stakeholders.