The European Commission has adopted on the 16th july 2008 a Communication on a new industrial property rights strategy for Europe. Together with the creation of a Community patent and integrated patent jurisdiction, the Communication outlines a number of actions as the keystone to maintain a high quality industrial property rights system for the EU in the 21st century. It sets out to support inventors in making informed choices on the protection of their industrial property rights and calls for robust enforcement against counterfeiting and piracy. The Communication also aims to ensure that industrial property rights in Europe are of high quality and that they are accessible to all innovators, particularly small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The European Commission has adopted on the 16th july 2008 a Communication on a new industrial property rights strategy for Europe. Together with the creation of a Community patent and integrated patent jurisdiction, the Communication outlines a number of actions as the keystone to maintain a high quality industrial property rights system for the EU in the 21st century.

It sets out to support inventors in making informed choices on the protection of their industrial property rights and calls for robust enforcement against counterfeiting and piracy. The Communication also aims to ensure that industrial property rights in Europe are of high quality and that they are accessible to all innovators, particularly small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

A strong industrial property rights system is a driving force for innovation, stimulating R&D investment and facilitating the transfer of knowledge from the laboratory to the marketplace.

The actions proposed will ensure Europe has a high quality industrial property rights system in the years to come:

• Effective enforcement on the ground against counterfeiting and piracy. This is reaching alarming levels with damaging effects to job creation in Europe and the heath and safety of consumers. In addition to improving coordination between key enforcement actors at a national level, the Commission will work towards effective cooperation between Member States in intelligence gathering and rapid information exchange on counterfeit and pirated goods. Furthermore, the Commission will help facilitate agreements involving both the public and private sector to crack down on blatant violations of intellectual property rights.
• Ensuring high-quality industrial property rights in Europe that are accessible to all innovators, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To achieve this, the Commission will undertake studies on the quality of the patent system and on the overall functioning of the trademark systems in the EU. This would also include the Community trademark, which the Office for Harmonisation of the Internal Market has been successfully registering for over 10 years.
• Facilitating exploitation by SMEs of industrial property rights. The Communication outlines measures to facilitate access to industrial property rights and dispute resolution procedures, and to improve awareness among SMEs of the management of industrial property as an integral element within an overall business plan.

This Communication is related with another Recomendation published on the 5th June 2008 dating back from the 10th April 2008 on the management of intellectual property in knowledge transfer activities and Code of Practice for universities and other public research organisations.