The EU Approach to IP Protection in Partnership Agreements

Abstract

The EU’s third generation approach to international IP protection and enforcement is essentially TRIPS-plus driven, but it is considerably more balanced than, in particular, the EU’s domestic legislative approach. Nonetheless, significant imbalances persist. They arise from issues like enforcement universalism, a lack of sufficient ceilings woven into agreements under the third generation approach and an ensuing over-burdening of developing countries with high standards similar to those of the EU. Overall thus, there is still considerable leeway for fine-tuning and re-balancing the EU’s approach to IP protection and particularly enforcement in FTAs.

Keywords: IP protection, EU, international enforcement, third-country enforcement, strategy, EPAs, economic partnership agreements