u.s., eu announce joint ipr enforcement program
on june 20, commerce secretary carlos gutierrez, european commission vice president and commissioner for industry gunter verheugen and european union trade commissioner peter mandelson launched a joint u.s.-eu action program to tackle global intellectual property piracy. the program was conceived in 2005 and is expected to be endorsed by president bush and ec president jose manuel barroso at the u.s.-eu summit in vienna on june 21. in a press release announcing the first u.s.-eu joint enforcement program of its kind, mandelson said, “the issue of intellectual property protection goes to the heart of the ability of the eu and the us to compete in the global economy because our high-value goods have strong intellectual content. stepping up the enforcement fight required a joint strategy and it needed to have some teeth.” among the key commitments are the following:

• closer customs cooperation including joint border enforcement actions where u.s. and eu customs officials will work together to tackle intellectual piracy;

• joint enforcement in third countries, including the creation of teams of u.s and eu diplomats in third country embassies tasked with data- and intelligence-sharing and joint surveillance responsibilities; and

• increased collaboration with the private sector, which has advocated improved ipr protection as the key to u.s. and eu competitiveness.

initial efforts will likely focus on working with china and russia; however, the u.s. and the eu also have major concerns in asia, latin america and the middle east. the program aims to help emerging markets reinforce their own efforts to tackle intellectual property theft. according to the eu, the number of counterfeit items seized at eu borders has increased by more than 1000% between 1998 and 2004, from 10 million in 1998 to over 103 million in 2004.