Digital Services Act agreement links European Commission and EUIPO on online IP enforcement
EUIPO will support Digital Services Act work on counterfeit goods, pirated content, and online intellectual property infringements.
The European Commission and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) have signed a five-year agreement under which the latter will provide technical support and intellectual property expertise for work under the Digital Services Act. The cooperation focuses on online infringements of intellectual property rights, in particular the sale of counterfeit goods and the distribution of pirated content.
The EUIPO will support the oversight of the European Commission’s Very Large Online Platforms and Very Large Online Search Engines. That work will include analysing internal reports submitted by those services on how they address online intellectual property infringement.
An agreement with the European Commission includes training for national authorities that enforce the Digital Services Act. It also supports the European Board for Digital Services by contributing to discussions in its working groups on intellectual property.
The EUIPO will also help build expertise among judicial authorities, intellectual property right holders, and smaller online intermediaries, and contribute to a shared collection of best practices and tools.
However, this agreement is linked to the Digital Services Act framework, under which online intermediaries are required to provide notice-and-action mechanisms for illegal content, and Very Large Online Platforms and Very Large Online Search Engines are subject to additional risk-assessment and mitigation obligations.
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