Extraterritorial Intellectual Property Enforcement in the European Union

This paper was prepared for the 2011 ABILA International Law Weekend – West volume of the Southwestern Journal of International Law. It addresses extraterritorial enforcement of intellectual property rights in the European Union. The maximum length of the paper was set by the Journal.The problems associated with extraterritorial enforcement of intellectual property rights in the European Union (the “EU”) may be divided into three categories: enforcement of unitary EU-wide rights, enforcement of multiple national rights, and enforcement of rights based on one national law with extraterritorial effects on activities in other countries. Although these are three distinct categories of problems, they are interconnected; problems in one category may exacerbate problems in another category, and solutions developed in one category may contribute to the resolution of problems in another category. This article briefly reviews the three categories of problems and demonstrates the interrelatedness of solutions that have been developed or will have to be developed to address the problems