What will be the Observatorys main tasks?
The Observatory will boost the fight against counterfeiting and piracy by: 1. Obtaining better information including figures about the size of the problem Broad facts about the damage caused by counterfeiting and piracy are fairly well known, but more detailed figures based on solid evidence have been more difficult to assemble. This is partly due to the clandestine nature of the problem, but also because national authorities and businesses affected by the problem have not collected information in a systematic and uniform way. Some base their figures on the number of incidents, some in terms of volume, and some in terms of value; some collect only information from where the goods originate; and some group products in very broad categories while the others clearly specify them. At present, the most robust figures indicating the scale of the problem are based on customs seizures of counterfeit/pirated goods at EU borders. Unfortunately, infringements at the borders only depict a part of
