10 | 03 | 2017

Private Costs of Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights

The European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) published the study providing an insight into the data on costs borne by companies in the European Union for combating infringements of intellectual property rights, originally titled: Private Costs of Enforcement of IPR.

The study is based on a survey of 1,291 companies in 14 Member States of the European Union; one third of the companies are manufacturers, and two thirds are service providers. The survey was carried out between November 2015 and March 2016, via questionnaires and telephone interviews.

The study shows that the average company in the sample spent EUR 115,317 per year on enforcement-related activities, depending on company size. These costs are particularly burdensome for companies with fewer than 50 employees.  In terms of cost categories, overall the annual cost of employee time dedicated to the enforcement of intellectual property rights was the largest component (32%), followed by the costs of storage and destruction of infringing goods (21%) and external legal assistance costs (17%); the study elaborates also on court fees of legal proceedings in intellectual property rights infringement cases as well as on other costs associated with detecting and combating infringement of intellectual property rights.

The study is available at the following link.