EU cigarettes refer to cigarettes with English packaging labels purchased in duty-free shops at European airports. Holders of Chinese passports can only buy this kind of cigarettes, not cigarettes produced in local countries.

In 2007, 79 million counterfeit and pirated products were seized in ***, a decrease of 38% from the previous year. The main reason was that the number of seized counterfeit cigarettes and CD/DVDs dropped significantly; infringement cases decreased compared with the previous year. An increase of 17, an increase of 64 compared with 2005.

In recent years, the customs has improved its cooperation with industry and can more specifically target relevant freight and identify infringing goods. In 2007, 80% of customs actions were initiated by industrial applications (a total of 10,000 industrial applications, compared with 7,000 in 2006).

Among the goods seized by customs, the largest quantities were cigarettes and clothing, with 35 and 22 respectively; the fastest growing ones were medicines, electronic products, cosmetics, food and computer equipment. 92% of the infringements involved trademarks, 5% involved patents, nearly 2% involved copyrights and neighboring rights, and the rest were industrial design rights.

Extended information:

EU trademark:

The European Council adopted Regulation No. 40/94 (last revised in 2006) to protect "*** Any natural person can obtain trademark rights by applying for registration, and the registration fee is 230 euros.

***The homogeneous trademark is registered and managed by the "Office for Coordination of the Internal Market (OHIM)" and has legal effect in the 27 EU countries. The trademark systems of member states and the EU trademark system coexist at the same time, and have a division of labor. For example, the responsibility for combating infringement belongs to the courts specially designated by member states.

The trademark protection period is 10 years and can be extended without limit. The owner has the exclusive right to use the trademark and has the right to prevent any third party from using the trademark without its consent. ***The same trademark can be transferred. Within 5 years after trademark registration, if there is no "genuine use" in the EU, that is, normal commercialization, the trademark right can be rejected.

In view of the coexistence of the European Union's collective trademark system and the member state trademark system, the EU has increased internal coordination efforts to better protect the rights and interests of right holders. Currently, Europe plans to join the 2006 Singapore Treaty on Trademark Law.

In 2007, OHIM*** registered 88,000 trademarks, an increase of 14% over the previous year. Compared with 2004, registration applications increased by 50 and the time required for registration decreased by 1/3. There are 14 applications for homologous trademark registration using the procedures in WIPO’s Madrid Protocol. Germany is the member state with the most applications for registered trademarks, accounting for 17 of the total applications, followed by the United Kingdom (10) and Spain (8).

Baidu Encyclopedia - EU Intellectual Property Protection Policy