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DPMA President Eva Schewior at the Enforcement Summit 2025

three people smile into the camera

Patricia García-Escudero Márquez (Director of the Observatory), Andrea di Carlo (EUIPO Deputy Executive Director) and DPMA President Eva Schewior

Strong message for the protection of IP in the digital age

With the participation of DPMA President Eva Schewior in the sixth international Enforcement Summit on 12 and 13 June 2025 in Athens, the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) empasises its commitment to the protection of intellectual property. At the same time, this sends a strong message in the wordwide fight against trade mark and product piracy.

The meeting was organised by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) together with the Hellenic Industrial Property Organsiation (OBI), the European Commision and the Interagency Market Control Unit (DIMEA). The summit with the motto "Stronger IP enforcement in the digital age" brought together more than 300 experts from more than 40 countries. This included important European and international decision-makers, law enforcement authorities as well as representatives from multinational companies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and consumer organisations. Among other things, they discussed the progress regarding the enforcement of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the opportunities and risks AI presents for IP protection.

Combatting IP crime continues to pose a great challenge. Some reasons for this are differing national laws, limited resources for police and judicial authorities and the high need for international collaboration. The current EMPACT cycle (2022–2025), a EU programme for joint measures against organised and serious crime, has already achieved significant results due to coordinated investigations and large-scale seizures of counterfeited goods. To ensure the effective protection of intellectual property in Europe also in the future, we need a continued strong cooperation, new investments in the enforcement of rights as well as awareness for the increasing challenges of a digital and globally connected world.

EU is planning new measures from 2026 to 2029

At the same time, the Council of the EU passed the new priorities for the EMPACT cycle 2026–2029: as part of the new EU plan for combatting economic and financial crime, police, customs and judicial authorities are to focus even more on IP crime.

For more information, please visit the externer Link EUIPO website.

Picture: EUIPO

Last updated: 11 July 2025