Series of Conferences at Industrial Property Information Regional Centers

Analysis of the new Law on Trademarks and awareness-raising talk about counterfeiting

Currently, the SPTO is holding a series of informative conferences about Industrial Property at Regional Centers around Spain. Together with the spreading of the changes that the new Law on Trademarks has entailed, the Legal Coordination and International Relations Department of the SPTO is taking the opportunity to give an awareness-raising talk about product counterfeiting.

The recent reports of the EUIPO and the OECD that quantify the product counterfeiting problem are being analyzed during these talks. According to them, product counterfeiting and audiovisual piracy cost almost 56,000 million euros per year to those European companies that make an intensive use of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), what is equivalent to an average of the 7.4% of their selling. In Spain, the impact is even deeper, meaning a 10.6% and 6,766 million euros, according to the report of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

In addition, some data taken from the EUIPO regular sectorial studies on the impact of counterfeiting are being displayed. Focusing on those sectors that make an intensive use of IPR (Patents, Designs or Trademarks) such as: clothing, footwear and accessories; smartphones; agro chemical products; pharmaceutical products; wine and spirituous drinks; music; jewelry and watches; bags and luggage; toys and games; sports material; and cosmetics and personal care products. These sectors entail the 42% of the European GDP, 5.7 billion euros and the 28% of the employment. Furthermore, they generate an external surplus of 96,000 million euros and its employees earn a 46% more than those of other sectors with a minor dependence on IPR use.

In Spain, the impact on the rightful owner of these Patents, Trademarks or Designs means 6,766 million euros, a 10.6% of the selling in those sectors. Besides, the impact percentage on selling is greater in Spain than in the average of the EU in sectors such as clothes (14.9%, 3,808 million euros), medicines (4.5%), cosmetics (14.1%), wines and spirituous drinks (8.3%) and smartphones (10% compared to 8.3%).

The sector that suffers a deeper damage due to counterfeiting is clothing and accessories, whose losses entail 28,419 million euros, a 9.4% of the invoicing. The following ones are pharmaceutical, with 9,577 million euros (3.9%), and cosmetics (7,053 million euros, 10.6%). Wine and spirituous drinks counterfeiting subtracts a 5.9% of the business, 2,398 million euros, to legitimate companies.

Counterfeit products also mean a decrease of 468,000 employments and its corresponding tax contributions, so the States lose a total of 16,000 million euros per year. In fact, the EUIPO estimates that the total indirect impact of counterfeiting amounts to 92,000 million euros.

So far, the talks have been held at the Regional Centers of Santiago de Compostela, Murcia, Málaga, Mérida, Valladolid, Valencia, Pamplona and Jaén.