Germany makes IPR a top priority

Trademark and product piracy is one of the greatest threats to trade and fair competition today. The amount of damage such activity causes to the economy, to the state and to consumers means that the authorities and the holders of the rights themselves need to invest a great deal of effort to combat this form of economic crime. German Customs has not been found wanting in this regard and for years now has been deploying multi-layered strategies to meet the challenge of curbing trademark and product piracy, and has stepped up its efforts to this end in recent years. As such, we are very proud that the WCO Council at its last meeting decided to award the WCO trophy to German Customs in recognition of its work, endeavours and results in this field.