The recent Report on EU Customs Enforcementof IPRs (the “Report”) gives rise to some interesting statistics on theEU’s fight against goods which infringe IPRs.  The Report deals withthe actions taken by EU Member State customs on encountering counterfeitand other infringing goods from non-EU countries.  Goods from thesecountries suspected of infringing an IPR (such as a trade mark, design,patent or copyright) with effect in the EU can be seized by Member Statecustoms and in many cases are destroyed by such customs with theconsent of the rights holder.

The Report is mainly concerned with statistics, some of which are:

• The number of seizures in 2010 was approximately 80,000 (almost double the amount of 2009) which equates to a domestic retail value of €1,110,052,402 (i.e. €1.1 billion)
• 85% of the total amount of articles seized entered the EU from China
• Turkey was the main source of infringing foodstuffs, while Thailand accounted for the largest amount of seizures of alcoholic beverages
• Cigarettes accounted for 34% of the total goods seized, followed by office stationery (9%) and other tobacco products (8%)
• In 90% of cases the seized goods were destroyed by customs and in 7% of cases they were released to the importer because either they did not infringe the IPRs of the rights holder or the rights holder did not react in time
• Trade marks were the main IPR relied on by rights holders (in relation to almost 88% of the articles seized); and
• 2010 saw a substantial increase in the number of articles being seized from the post which is thought to relate to a surge in infringing goods being purchased on the internet

The EU has signed a dedicated customs action plan on counterfeit andpiracy with their Chinese counterparts in an effort to address the majorissues with counterfeit/pirated goods arriving from China.

Contributed by Brian McElligott