UGGC’s Intellectual Property team involved in the IP DAY
For the past twenty-one years, every April 26, World Intellectual Property Day has been held, organized by WIPO. This day is intended to raise awareness of the general public to the issues of intellectual property (copyright, patent law, trademark law, design law) – areas in which the IP/IT team of UGGC Law Firm has a leading expertise.
This year the theme of the day is to highlight the link between IP and SMEs (“IP and SMEs: Market your ideas”).
Such a theme is ideal to remind the interest that SMEs have in preserving and enhancing their intangible assets with the evolution of consumption patterns.
Indeed, an encouraging evolution of mentalities and behaviors on the stakes of intellectual property has been taking shape for a few years.
According to a study published by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) on November 24, 2020, there has been a decrease in voluntary purchases of infringing products and access to illegal content.
On a panel of nearly 26,000 EU residents aged 15 and over, 98% of respondents think it is important for inventors, designers and artists to have legal protection and receive remuneration. This almost unanimous response demonstrates the indispensable nature of intellectual property protection.
In France, 6% in 2017 admitted to having intentionally purchased counterfeit products, and 15% to having accessed online content from illegal sources: they are now 3% and 9% respectively.
The democratization of new technologies and the emergence of new digital players have a beneficial impact, as in 2020, 42% of Europeans said they paid for accessing, downloading and distributing online content from a legal service, 17 points more than three years earlier.
According to the EUIPO, this more critical perception of counterfeiting may be linked to “negative public reactions observed during the Covid-19 crisis against counterfeit medicines and personal protective equipment.”
This significant consumer awareness of IP issues holds promise for the European market, 83% of whom believe that the purchase of counterfeit goods hurts business and employment. Thus, many consumers have chosen not to, or no longer, turn to counterfeit products in order not to harm creators, jobs, and more generally the economy.
Finally, 80% of Europeans surveyed said they have a good understanding of intellectual property. Correlatively, they believe that the better they understand the issues, the less likely they are to consume counterfeit products.
In any event, the results of this study bode well for the future of the companies – especially SMEs – that UGGC’s lawyers support.
