And Again: EU Draft Directive on Criminal Measures Aimed at Ensuring the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights.
In my earlier posting I had discussed Document 11856/06 from the Presidency of the Council of the European Union to the Article 36 Committee concerning the Amended proposal for a Directive on criminal measures aimed at ensuring the enforcement of intellectual property rights. Recently, with Document 13103/06 the outcome of the meeting of Article 36 Committee has been made public:
"[...]
However, during the meeting of Article 36 Committee several Member States (NL, UK, IE, CZ, HU, LV, PL) reiterated their concerns with respect to the need for further criminal measures against the violation of intellectual property rights. While acknowledging the phenomenon of cross-border and organised counterfeiting and piracy, those Member States have expressed doubts as to whether or not the harmonisation of criminal sanctions at the European level would be effective in eradicating such crime. Furthermore, those Member States queried whether such measures would be in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 TEC.
It has also been pointed out that the time-limit for bringing into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the Directive 2004/48/EC has expired only recently, on 29 April 2006. Consequently, from this point of view some Member States (at least DK, HU, UK, AT) considered it premature to enter into discussions about future criminal measures before the effectiveness of the civil law and administrative measures at the Community level has been assessed.
[...]
[...] [W]hile it has been affirmed in the judgment [in case C-176/03, added by -AHH] that the Community has criminal law competence in the field on environmental policy, it has not been established that the Community would have corresponding competence in other policy areas in the first pillar. Also the extent of such competence in terms of defining the level and nature of penalties remains an open question. In the present context, the legal situation thus remains unclear as to whether and to what extent the Community has competence to adopt criminal law measures in the field of intellectual property rights on the basis of Article 95 TEC."
This appears to be a rather reluctant, if not negative statement of the Article 36 Committee concerning the Commission's urging demand to go further with regard to strengthen Criminal Law in view of IP infringement.
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Dipl.-Phys. Axel H Horns is Patentanwalt (German Patent Attorney),
European Patent Attorney as well as European Trade Mark Attorney. In particular, he is Member of:
my earlier posting I had discussed 
Document 11856/06 from the Presidency of the Council of the European Union to the 
