Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights Online : Discussing Business Solutions between China and Europe - Seminar and break-out sessions

On June 2nd, 2016 in Beijing, the EU Delegation to China and Mongolia and the Ministry of Commerce of China, with the technical and logistical support of the IP Key Action, hosted a full day event to talk about business solutions to the infringement of Intellectual Property Rights on e-commerce.

The European Commission and MOFCOM have long called for “reinforced cooperation”as well as committed to jointly work together towards finding sustainable solutions to the problem of IP counterfeiting online.

Please download the book with all presentations and pictures of the day here.

As two of the world’s leading economies, cooperation in the enforcement of protection for IP is an important aspect of bilateral relations between the EU and China, reaffirmed during the last EU-China Summit in Brussels. In light of the EU’s status as a leading producer of IP and China’s emergence as a market leader in e-commerce, this conference provided an important opportunity for sharing experiences, mutual benefit and enhanced cooperation.

The event of June 2nd, largely participated by approximately 200 persons, took place back-to-back to a closed door meeting between government representatives, which was aimed at reaching a common understanding in the IP policy cooperation impacting on this issue.

Before the business conference of June 2nd, the Vice Minister of MOFCOM Mr. Fang and EU Ambassador to China, Mr. Schweisgut, gave opening remarks after discussing separately some of the points in the IP Dialogue agenda.

Various industry representatives from China and Europe, e-commerce platforms, service intermediaries, IPR owners and experts engaged in lengthy and productive exchanges in the form of break-out sessions, focusing on: procedures for notice-and-take-down, prevention of counterfeiting online (filtering, credits), the role of side services (shipping, advertising, payment processing, etc.) and partnerships between stakeholders and e-platforms. Industry representatives engaged in productive discussions to find joint solutions to tackle the issue, which cost as much as 1.7 trillion USD and puts as many as 2.5 million legitimate jobs at risk.

A final plenary session allowed participants sharing conclusions and key messages.

IPR holders in China and EU reaffirm the necessity to urgently work out protection mechanisms for efficiently fighting counterfeits on e-commerce, while e-platforms call for common efforts by all stakeholders to find sustainable solutions.

There is common understanding that the law should provide basic principles for achieving largely shared solutions over voluntary cooperation models between stakeholders, which should be compatible with fast business transactions and responsive to the interest of consumers and right holders, following the pace of technology innovation in the sector.

Short- and long-term goals were discussed with a commitment to deliver them through awareness and legal means. The EU and China will continue to draft concrete proposals which will further strengthen the commitment to solving this global issue.

The event concluded with guests signing a "wall of fame" as a symbol of their commitment, under the notes of Ravel’s Bolero.

For more information on this event please contact the IP Key coordinator Davide Follador at davide.follador@ipkey.org. and for additional information on IP Key’s activities please contact Jaspal Channa at Jaspal.channa@ipkey.org. If you need a high defination of your pictures, please send Email to info@ipkey.org.