For firms operating in the global marketplace, effective brand protection is a critical defence against competitive risks. Firms allocate resources both internally and externally to protect their brand from the threat posed by counterfeit products. However, little is known about firms' brand...

Product counterfeiting is a serious, global problem that is increasingly attracting the attention of academics, businesses, brand protection practitioners, law enforcement, and transnational organisations. Previous research found that consumers' confusion over the definition of the "counterfeit"...

China, similarly to European countries, provides legal protection of IPRs including trademarks, copyrights and patents. If the IP-protected material is uploaded without the right holder's consent, s/he may request in writing, from the internet service provider (ISP): to remove the infringing...

China, similarly to European countries, provides legal protection of IPRs including trademarks, copyrights and patents. If the IP-protected material is uploaded without the right holder's consent, s/he may request in writing, from the internet service provider (ISP): to remove the infringing...

This study explores how behavioral addictions, specifically compulsive and addictive buying, shape counterfeit consumption through the mediating roles of hedonic motivation and social comparison. While prior research has explored maladaptive buying behaviors and counterfeit purchasing...

In May 2023 Frontex coordinated a joint action day (JAD) against the smuggling of counterfeit goods at the external EU borders, including maritime ones. The JAD was implemented under EMPACT and was led and co-led respectively by Bulgaria and Portugal. The operational activity also focused on the...

The Recommendation provides EU stakeholders and Member States with a toolbox to strengthen the EU's capacity to protect the single market from counterfeiting and piracy. It facilitates collaboration and transparency, promotes best practice, and addresses the specific challenges faced by industry...

The Recommendation provides EU stakeholders and Member States with a toolbox to strengthen the EU's capacity to protect the single market from counterfeiting and piracy. It facilitates collaboration and transparency, promotes best practice, and addresses the specific challenges faced by industry...

The Recommendation provides EU stakeholders and Member States with a toolbox to strengthen the EU's capacity to protect the single market from counterfeiting and piracy. It facilitates collaboration and transparency, promotes best practice, and addresses the specific challenges faced by industry...

Developed with intellectual property (IP) practitioners in national judicial authorities in mind, this report aims to provide a better understanding of how criminal infringements of copyrights are legislated and enforced across Member States of the European Union. Its focus are online criminal...

This paper examines the economic impact of wine counterfeiting, with a focus on the Sassicaia scandal, publicized in 2020, regarding counterfeit 2015 vintage bottles of the iconic Super Tuscan wine. Wine fraud, documented since ancient Rome, has evolved alongside the industry, with key...

Maritime piracy is a pressing global economic and security challenge, posing significant threats to international shipping and global trade. Contemporary piracy is intrinsically linked to matters of governance and economic marginalization fostered by the globalization of the world economy. The...

Maritime transport has been historically susceptible to piracy. While broad assessments suggest the impact of modern piracy causes large economic losses, the literature lacks quantification of the magnitude of the costs and the behavioral responses that underpin them. Here, we combine theory and...

Illicit trade in counterfeit goods is a large-scale global challenge, accounting for up to USD 467 billion annually. Beyond economic and consumer harms, counterfeiting is closely linked to labour exploitation. This policy brief highlights new OECD evidence showing a robust statistical...

This report presents new empirical evidence demonstrating a robust link between trade in counterfeit goods and labour exploitation. Countries with higher levels of forced labour and informality show greater counterfeit-export intensity, indicating that illicit production thrives where workers...

The European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights (the Observatory) was created to improve the understanding of the role of intellectual property and of the negative consequences of intellectual property rights (IPRs) infringements. The sectorial studies published during...

The use of advertising to fund websites and mobile apps that offer pirated content has become an insidious practice within the online piracy landscape. This flyer gives an overview of the scale of the problem, the actors operating within the advertising ecosystem, and the types and formats of...

The aim of this study is to develop a fuller understanding of factors that drive the intentional demand for counterfeit goods. Counterfeit products are fakes or unauthorised replicas of the original product, usually illegally marked with logos and brands belonging to the company that sells the...

In March 2021, Eurojust and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) signed a Service Level Agreement (SLA) establishing the Eurojust IP Crime (IPC) Project, aimed at boosting cooperation and ensuring a more coherent and robust response against IP infringements across the EU. The...

In recent years, pharmaceutical drug traceability systems have been developed as critical tools for improving the digital supply chain's transparency and visibility. Blockchain-based drug traceability proposes a promising solution to create a distributed shared data platform for an irreversible,...

What began with an intense bout of crypto fever has since the onset of the pandemic engendered an explosive rise in online retail trading. While the original political promise of financial decentralization has become ever harder to sustain, the idea of democracy as access, including access to...

The success of streaming services seemed to mark the end of the two-decade-long debate about online piracy. However, the emergence of new websites aggregating and distributing illegally content from multiple streaming platforms rekindled the debate. In this paper, we are interested in...

We focus on the enforcement of trademark rights, particularly those used against counterfeiters, or those who use unauthorized trademarks of another. We examine the concept of extraterritorial enforcement of trademark rights — the extending of enforcement across national borders — and...