citizens-data-advice-agency
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of the EU’s policies regarding the
combatting of counterfeiting and in particular the establishment of the European
Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy (later renamed the European Observatory on
Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights). This paper will demonstrate how ‘hard’
legal regimes for the management of online sales of counterfeit items have been
significantly limited by the lack of effective data on the scale of the phenomenon, as well as
the reluctance of Internet platforms to tackle online infringements. Through the
empowerment of the Observatory and its transferal to the European agency the Office of
Harmonisation of the Internal Market (OHIM) however, the EU has managed to establish
its position as a cyber-security actor able to tackle online infringements of intellectual
property rights. Through research into and identification of best practices concerning the
quantification of counterfeit sales, information collection and sharing, and in facilitating
coordination and cooperation between networks of private and public sector actors, the
Observatory has taken on a key role in establishing online networks for proactively
countering the sale and distribution of counterfeit products online. In this way, the
Commission’s facilitation of a network governance model has led to the development of a
more effective means of combatting the threat posed by physical goods that are
distributed via digital means.
