Protecting EU creations, inventions and designs

Intellectual property rights (IPRs) (such as patents, trademarks, designs, copyrights or geographical indications) enable European inventors, creators and businesses to prevent unauthorised exploitation of their creations, and to receive compensation for their investment. IPRs also offer guarantees to users or consumers (e.g. geographical indications) to identify the origin of the goods concerned.

• Benefits of intellectual property rights

Trade and intellectual property in a nutshell:

• Commercial-scale piracy and counterfeiting harm the sales of EU exporters.
• IPRs support creativity and innovation. The EU needs to protect these intangible assets for growth and competitiveness.
• Enforcing IPRs within the EU and abroad protects EU growth and jobs. When European ideas, brands and products are pirated and counterfeited, EU jobs are affected.
• Counterfeit products can put at risk consumer safety and health, and can harm the environment. The EU supports strong IPR standards to tackle IPR infringements in the EU and abroad.
• Rights holders need access to effective ways of protecting their rights internationally. They need a solid and predictable legal framework on IPR.

EU trade policy and intellectual property

The EU seeks to improve the protection and enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights in third countries. It pursues this objective in different ways:

• An effective enforcement regime: The EU has adopted a revised IPR SME Helpdesk, in China, Latin America and Southeast Asia. IPR SME Helpdesks provide information and advice to SMEs on intellectual property rights (IPR) in these regions. 

Enforcing intellectual property rights in EU trade policy

The EU's current IPR Helpdesk