Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
C. DIRECTIVE 2004/48/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE
COUNCIL OF 29 APRIL 2004 ON THE ENFORCEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY RIGHTS
1. Objective and scope
The Enforcement Directive was promulgated at the same time as the TRIPS
Agreement and represents the EU's attempt to implement at least the civil
enforcement provisions of the TRIPS Agreement. This is acknowledged in
Recital (4) to the Enforcement Directive, which points out that at the inter-
national level, 'all Member States, as well as the Community itself as regards
matters within its competence, are bound by the [TRIPS] Agreement …
approved, as part of the multilateral negotiations of the Uruguay Round, by
Council Decision 94/800/EC (3) and concluded in the framework of the
World Trade Organization'.
7.10
Another objective of the Enforcement Regulation identified in Recital (3) is the
general role of IPR enforcement in encouraging innovation and creativity and
associated investment as well as the specific role to ensure that the substantive
law on intellectual property is applied effectively in the Community in support-
ing the internal market.
7.11
Recital (8) notes the disparities between the systems of the Member States as
regards the means of enforcing IPRs which are prejudicial to the proper
functioning of the internal market causing, according to Recital (9), a loss of
confidence in the internal market in business circles, with a consequent
reduction in investment in innovation and creation. Thus as Recital (10)
explains, the objective of the Directive 'is to approximate legislative systems so
as to ensure a high, equivalent and homogeneous level of protection in the
internal market'.
7.12
(a) Subject matter
Article 1 provides that 'this Directive concerns the measures, procedures and
remedies necessary to ensure the enforcement of intellectual property rights'.
Interestingly, the Directive, does not define the term 'intellectual property
rights' beyond saying that it 'includes industrial property rights'. Neither is
'industrial property' defined. The definition of this term in Art 2(2) of the Paris
Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property provides that the protec-
tion of industrial property has as its object '… trademarks, service marks, trade
names, indications of source or appellations of origin, and the repression of
unfair competition'.
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