European Commission report on IPR protection and enforcement in third countries

European Commission report on IPR protection and enforcement in third countries

The European Commission publishes a report on the protection and enforcement of industrial and intellectual property rights (IPR) every two years. Its main objective is to identify those third countries where the protection and enforcement of these rights is of concern to the EU, establishing a list of “priority countries” where IPR protection may be insufficient and therefore cause serious harm to European companies.

A weak framework for the protection and enforcement of IPR in third countries leads to a number of negative economic effects in both those countries and the EU.

The list of priority countries is divided into three categories:

- Priority 1: China

- Priority 2: India, Turkey

- Priority 3: Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Thailand

Main characteristics of these priorities (1 being the most serious):

- Legal instability and divergence in the application of rules

- Forced technology transfer practices

- High levels of counterfeiting and piracy

- Insufficient protection of trade secrets

- Lengthy title registration process

- Restrictive patentability criteria

- Pharmaceuticals: troubling system for protecting undisclosed test data and other data generated to obtain marketing approval

- Lack of effective legislation regarding the protection and enforcement of plant variety rights

- Weak IPR enforcement measures

- Lack of capacity of customs authorities to take action ex officio

- Counterfeits are often not destroyed and return to the market: destruction procedures are lengthy and expensive

- Some of the EU's trading partners have not yet acceded to important international conventions

More information

Register of Commission Documents - SWD(2025)131