Counterfeit

Unauthorised representation of a registered trademark carried on goods similar to goods for which the trademark is registered, with a view to deceiving the purchaser into believing that he/she is buying the original goods.

European Union (EU)

The 1957 Treaty of Rome, which laid the foundations for the European Community (EC), was a milestone in the process of Western European integration. It looked forward to creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, and set out the basis for a common market and an economic and monetary union. The implementation of a common trade policy was historically at the heart of the original plan that led to the founding of the European Union. In 1992, building on the success of the EC, European leaders signed the Treaty of Maastricht, which established the EU. The European Union is composed of three pillars: the European Community (first pillar), the common foreign and security policy (second pillar) and co-operation in the fields of justice and home affairs (third pillar). Matters falling within the second and third pillars are handled by the Community institutions (the European Council, the Council, the Commission, the European Parliament etc.), but intergovernmental procedures apply.

Geographical Indication (GI)

Place names (or words associated with a place) used to identify products (for example, “Champagne”, “Tequila” or “Roquefort”) which have a particular quality, reputation or other characteristic because they come from that place.

Enforcement

Enforcement of intellectual property rights refers to any applicable means of upholding the legal basis for these rights, such as through the civil or criminal judicial systems, administrative means, customs authorities, or contractual means, as available in the relevant European, Member State, or Chinese jurisdictions.

Intellectual Property (IP)

Intellectual property refers to the ownership of ideas, including literary and artistic works (protected by copyright), inventions (protected by patents), signs for distinguishing goods of an enterprise (protected by trademarks) and other elements of industrial property. Material or communicable result in forms of discoveries, inventions, designs and literary and art works. Of scientific, humanistic, literary, and artistic endeavour. It includes, but is not limited to, works in the form of scientific discoveries and inventions, designs, patents, trademarks, books, monographs, papers, paintings, drawings and sculpture, performances, computer software, and lecture and conference presentations.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

Intellectual property rights protect property of an artistic or commercial nature. They are the rights granted to creators and inventors to control the use made of their productions. They are traditionally divided into two branches:

• "copyright and related rights" for literary and artistic works;
• "industrial property", which encompasses: trademarks, patents, industrial designs, geographical indications, layout-designs of integrated circuits and plant breeders' rights.

Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)

The WTO Agreement on TRIPS requires all WTO Members to respect a comprehensive set of minimum standards of protection for intellectual property rights. It sets minimum standards of intellectual property protection within WTO Members and ensures that states make available to rights holders judicial and/or administrative procedures to enforce their IPRs. It also covers their enforcement.

World Trade Organisation (WTO)

Established on 1 January 1995, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the core of the international rules-based system for world trade. It provides a forum for multilateral negotiations on trade, together with a rulebook and mechanisms for implementation and compliance, including a dispute settlement procedure. As the world economy globalises, the WTO is the most legitimate forum for removing obstacles to trade, creating and enforcing global rules and making them compatible with rules drawn up by other multilateral bodies.

The aims of the EU’s co-operation with WTO are:

• to open markets in goods, services and investment according to clear rules and a timetable that enables all countries to implement them,
• to make the WTO more open, accountable and more effective by engaging in discussion with outside constituencies and other organisations,
• to bring developing countries fully into the WTO's decision-taking processes, helping them to integrate with the world economy.

The WTO now has 144 members, and it is the only international body policing trade in goods, services and intellectual property rights among its members. Agreements are negotiated by governments whose aim is to ensure there is a comprehensible, reliable framework for importers and exporters world-wide, enabling them to operate in the certainty there will be no sudden, unpredictable changes in policy. The more members there are, the more effective the WTO’s rules are likely to be. That is why the EU actively encouraged China to join, and is now helping a number of other countries to prepare for WTO entry. The dispute settlement system is one of the cornerstones of the WTO.