Knowledge building

Knowledge building events

The Europol EU Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA) has identified key areas in which knowledge and training needs to be developed in relation to counterfeiting and organised crime.

EUIPO, Europol and Eurojust have joined forces to organise specific knowledge building events, concentrating on these key areas. The aim of the events is to improve understanding about fake and illicit goods, to highlight the difficulties faced by enforcement authorities, regulatory agencies, policy makers and customs, and to help reach effective responses based on current practices.

Judges' seminars

The Judges' seminars, which have been organised since 2008, have already established a body of practice among senior EU judges and prosecutors who regularly deal with intellectual property and enforcement issues. The network comprises over 800 judges and prosecutors from all 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 allow a free exchange of views, discussions are not public.

The seminars are, at their core, highly participative. The judges and prosecutors who attend generally return to further events. The participants receive the questions and the mock case, known as the Max Case, to be dealt with during the seminar well in advance and are required to prepare the response before the event. This preparation allows the judges to share their experiences with their peers at working sessions that take place during the event. The seminars are not training sessions but rather a series of workshops during which judges can learn from peers, and share and network with colleagues belonging to different courts and different countries.

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

The Judges' seminars take place several times a year and are held in a confidential environment, which means that reports of these events are not made publicly available. However, in the future, whenever the discussed topic permits, non-confidential executive summaries of the events will be published.

IP enforcement events

The Observatory is also involved in high-level events to ensure policy makers, communicators and decision takers are fully aware of relevant issues surrounding IP.

Here you can see the reports of the conferences that have been organised to date. See our events calendar for future similar events.

Regional seminars

The regional seminars are aimed at building knowledge among law enforcement practitioners, such as police, customs and prosecutors, in the area of intellectual property rights infringements. These seminars are organised in different geographic regions for EU Member States and neighbouring countries.

Other resources