Author: Boyana Boyadzhieva
The US company Amazon is the first major marketplace service provider to dedicate itself to the fight against counterfeit goods, joining the European Union Intellectual Property Office’s (EUIPO) centralized platform for the exchange of information related to intellectual property rights enforcement – the IP Enforcement Portal (IPEP).
IPEP acts as a collaboration point between IP rights holders, customs officials, police, and market surveillance authorities, facilitating the identification and detection of counterfeit products. The portal provides a secure environment for communication and information exchange, where rights holders decide which information to share with whom. It is already used by over 1 400 brand owners and 81 enforcement agencies across the EU.
In order to strengthen cooperation to reduce online sales of counterfeits, the EUIPO has already developed a first set of functionalities that can be used to support cooperation between e-commerce marketplaces and rights holders. Joining the IPEP benefits all online marketplaces that want to protect their users from counterfeits by enhancing the exchange of information with rights holders and enforcement authorities.