International Proposals for the Criminal Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights : international Concern with Counterfeiting and Piracy

The impetus for the inclusion of a TRIPS Agreement in the Uruguay Round in 1986 was the estimated $US60 billion worth of trade in counterfeit and pirate products. Notwithstanding the inclusion in TRIPS of a number of enforcement provisions, the annual trade in infringing products is estimated to have grown to some hundreds of billions of dollars. This article examines the scale of counterfeiting and piracy, its measurement and impacts. The principal policy responses to this growing trade have been the proposed strengthening of criminal enforcement of IPRs and this article considers the current negotiations for a plurilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).