Meeting in plenary, on 14 February in Strasbourg, the European Parliament adopted its first-reading position on the draft regulation to integrate the European Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy into the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) and to assign the OHIM new tasks ⁽¹⁾.

The Council and EP worked out a compromise on this text last December. The two institutions agreed to replace the name European Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy by European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights.

Set up in 2009, this observatory has members from the public and private sectors; it works to raise awareness and improve data collection and sharing of best practices. It has nevertheless lacked the financing, staff and expertise needed to be fully operational. The Commission therefore decided to propose a regulation that would integrate it into the OHIM, which has appropriate structures and financing.

Among its new tasks, the OHIM will be responsible for increasing knowledge on techniques to prevent counterfeiting, enhancing public awareness of intellectual property rights and improving cooperation with third countries.