The EU competition "Hands off my Design" has announced its winners for this edition. The competition is organised in order to draw attention on the cost that piracy has for the creative industry that estimates in €10 billion and more than 185,000 jobs in 2008 alone. The awards has been granted at an Award Ceremony held in the European Parliament.

The European Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy announced the winners of the "Hands off my Design" competition, which had invited design students and professionals to submit posters and videos that highlight the negative impact of counterfeiting and piracy on Europe's economy and society. In May 2011, the Commission adopted a strategy to revamp the legal framework for Intellectual Property Rights.

The winners are in the category of design students:

• 1st Prize: Julien Moreau, from the ECV Atlantique School in France
• 2nd Prize: Nejc Levstik, from the Academy of theater, radio, film and television in Slovenia
• 3rd Prize: Lauri Särak, Daniel Levi Viinalass and Elmo Soomets, from the Tartu Art College in Estonia

And in the category of professional designers:

• 1st Prize: Gergely Szőnyi and Tamás Helényi, Hungary
• 2nd Prize: Christoph Brehme, Italy
• 3rd Prize: Dimitris Haidas, Greece

In both categories, the posters and videos submitted from across Europe highlighted the implications of counterfeiting and piracy on Europe's economy and society. Almost 60 students and professional designers put forward proposals to an independent jury. The European Commission created the Observatory in 2009 as a platform to facilitate cooperation and exchange of experiences between public and private stakeholders as well as enabling collection of data on the infringements of intellectual property rights within the EU.