Georgian, Moldovan and Ukrainian Prosecutors Attend EIPPN International Workshop on IP Crime Prosecution
The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) organised the European Intellectual Property Prosecutors Network (EIPPN) international workshop on IP Crime prosecution on 12 and 13 September 2024, with the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The event’s 2024 edition took place in Geneva, Switzerland, and counted with delegates from Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
The EUIPO facilitated the participation of prosecutors and experts from the criminal investigation services of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine in the context of the EU-funded IP cooperation project EU4IP. This included the Intellectual Property Rights Infringement Monitoring Center of the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations.
The workshop gathered about 60 IP prosecutors, judges and experts from various EU Member States and non-EU countries, to share knowledge and learn from different enforcement systems. Its aim was to provide prosecutors with the tools and expertise to improve practices in their own countries, while fostering cooperation on IP matters among stakeholders. Hosted within the EUIPO, the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights plays a leading role on IP enforcement issues, which has been instrumental in nurturing the network of judges and prosecutors.
Presentations and discussions covered experiences from IP systems around the world, including those in China, Denmark, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. Some of the topics included IP crime and the roles and responsibilities of victims, prosecutors and investigators; the current landscape and global trends faced by jurisdictions beyond counterfeiting and other IP crimes (e.g. cybercrime, money laundering, piracy, IP fraud); the maximum penalties in different jurisdictions and the importance of parallel offences in referrals; the calculation of damages in IP crime cases; and crypto assets investigation.
This activity is a vivid demonstration of the EUIPO’s unwavering commitment to the Team Europe spirit, bringing the expertise of enforcement authorities from EU Members States to participate in the discussion and training journey of countries engaged in a pre-accession strategy. The information gathered during the sessions will contribute to enhancing the investigation, prosecution and enforcement practices of IP crimes, addressing the problems faced by prosecutors and improving the handling of IP cases in these countries.
The EUIPO actively supports the Georgian, Moldovan and Ukrainian authorities to protect the legitimate interests of IP rights holders and implement criminal policies to improve the IP system as a whole.