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The IP Key SEA IP Enforcement Week is a joint effort between the EU and South-East Asia aimed at IP policy-makers, IP and law enforcement authorities, IP stakeholders, and businesses in South-East Asia, organized from 9-13 September 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand. For key quotes from the event please find event video with highlight (https://bit.ly/2kvnGRj)

The scale of the problem was highlighted in a report on the global trade in counterfeit and pirated goods prepared by the OECD jointly with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), which shows that the trade in counterfeit and pirated goods had risen to 3.3% of world trade in 2016 – compared with 2.5% just three years earlier.

IP Enforcement Week covers a broad range of IP rights (IPRs) protection and enforcement-related topics, featuring some of the most experienced speakers from the European Commission and EU Member States, The European Observatory on infringements of Intellectual Property Rights, EUROPOL, South-East Asia IP officials, academia, and representatives of EU and South-East Asia businesses.

Mr. Tiago Guerreiro, IP KEY Project Leader said “The IP Key South-East Asia project supports the enhancement of the IPR protection and enforcement regimes of the countries in the region. The project works with its international trading partners in order to help them address specific emerging challenges in the area of intellectual property rights, and at the same time to facilitate market access for EU businesses and innovators. The events organized during the first-ever IP Key SEA IP Enforcement Week therefore aims to enhance the understanding of IP rights among the different stakeholders in the region, and to emphasize the importance of the effective enforcement of IP rights as a crucial undertaking for South-East Asia countries that are particularly prone to the proliferation of fake goods.”

The rise in IPR infringement has been facilitated in particular by digital technology that allows low-cost, high quality reproduction in bulk and a faster than ever circulation of fakes. It was estimated that the EU loses about EUR 8 billion of its GDP a year because of counterfeiting and piracy.

An efficient and effectively enforced intellectual property infrastructure is therefore necessary to ensure the stimulation of investment in innovation and to avoid commercial-scale IPR infringements that result in economic harm.

One of the major issues related to IPR enforcement involves the lack of awareness of the value of intellectual property and the lack of the necessary enforcement measures and remedies. The IP Enforcement Week events aim therefore to enhance the understanding of IP rights and the importance of its effective enforcement as a crucial undertaking for South-East Asia countries that are particularly prone to the proliferation of fake goods.

The 2019 IP Enforcement Week is organised in the framework of the IP KEY South-East Asia programme (IP Key SEA). Funded by the European Union, IP Key SEA focuses on supporting the enhancement of the IPR protection and enforcement regimes of the countries in the region. The programme works with its international trading partners in order to help them address specific emerging challenges in the area of IP, and to facilitate market access for EU businesses and innovators.