ST. PETERSBURG - The Group of Eight (G8) leaders adopted, during the G8 summit held July 15-17 in St. Petersburg, Russia, a commitment to strengthen individual and collective efforts to combat piracy and counterfeiting, especially trade in pirated and counterfeit goods.
According to the official website of the G8 summit, all G8 leaders agreed that combating trade in pirated and counterfeit products can only be solved through individual and joint efforts by all nations and relevant international organizations. The leaders also highlighted the usefulness of international congresses and workshops devoted to effective protection and enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs).
To continue the anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting activities, G8 leaders considered it necessary to enhance cooperation in that area among the G8 and other countries, as well as competent international organizations, notably the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Customs Organization (WCO), Interpol, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Council of Europe.
Priority should also be given to promoting and upholding laws, regulations and/or procedures to strengthen Intellectual Property (IP) enforcement, raising awareness in civil society and in the business community of the legal ways to protect and enforce IPRs and of the threats of piracy and counterfeiting, and also providing technical assistance in that area to developing countries. Close cooperation between law enforcement agencies, including customs authorities, is also of great importance.
The G8 leaders suggested the following concrete measures which will form the basis of a G8 work plan on piracy and counterfeiting:
- To create in each G8 country a website providing businesses and individuals with information on mechanisms available and procedures necessary to secure and enforce their IPRs in that country.
- To engage the OECD in preparing and focusing its report estimating the economic consequences of piracy and counterfeiting on national economies and right holders, and public health and safety.
- To cooperate with WIPO, WTO, OECD, Interpol and WCO to develop and begin implementing technical assistance pilot plans within the G8 in interested developing countries to build the capacity necessary to combat trade in counterfeit and pirated goods.
- To improve border enforcement through increased customs coordination and exchange of enforcement information and best practices designed to better target the trade of counterfeit goods and combat IP crime at the borders.
- To prepare recommendations aimed at improving G8 member countries' cooperative actions to combat serious and organized IPRs crimes.
The G8 is an unofficial forum of the heads of the leading industrialized democracies (Russia, the US, Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Canada and Italy), where the European Commission is also represented and fully participates. This forum was designed to harmonize attitudes to acute international problems.