The EU has issued a press release congratulating itself on a significant increase in customs activity at the EU's external borders in relation to IPR infringement.
- Over 49 000 customs detentions were registered in 2008, compared to 43,000 in 2007
- 80% of the customs interventions were the result of requests from industry
- There was a sharp increase in 2008 in the actual number of IPR infringing goods detained by customs – 178 million compared to 79 million in 2007
- There was a 2600% increase in the number of DVDs detained
- China was the main source of infringing goods, but other countries were hotspots for particular goods (e.g. India for medicines)
The reasons sometimes given for the increase in number of DVDs containing illegal copyright material is that there is a high degree of profit and it is a lower risk to trade in counterfeit DVDs than drugs where the criminal sanctions are much greater……
ReplyDeleteAnd how much of this was legal parallel importation? Or legit generic drugs?
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