Brand protection
Ensuring brands are protected now and in the future
Strong brands build trust with consumers and also differentiate themselves from competitors. Key to this recognition is the trade mark, the intellectual property right that covers brand names, logos, and slogans. Trade marks help consumers identify not just the manufacturer but the goods they trust and enjoy.
Fighting counterfeits and other infringements of our members’ rights is also crucial, to prevent damage to consumers, markets and brands’ reputation.
We support the brand ecosystem by advocating for strengthened legislation and procedures. Our goal is to help brands maintain customer loyalty, continue to grow in a highly competitive landscape, and keep consumers safe.
Activities
We advocate for and support efficient and effective trade mark laws and procedures. Only with rules, frameworks and tools in place can we fight counterfeits, and create a safer, more trustworthy European market. AIM’s long-standing reputation in the intellectual property field is based on our unique position as right holders only. For all our members, IP is their most important intangible asset.
The brand is a whole family of attributes – reputation, quality, fitness for purpose, consistency – built on one essential foundation: the trade mark. Put simply, no trade mark, no brand.
AIM’s Trade Mark Committee focuses on promoting efficient and effective trade mark laws, systems and procedures. We look at IP through a business lens, including how to address the parasitic copies that mislead consumers, and the need for streamlined and cost-effective registration and portfolio management systems across the EU. We continuously engage with EU institutions to bridge the gap between policy and market reality, and also work closely with IP offices such as the EUIPO, where we are honoured to be one of only five user association observers to the Management Board. We are also an official observer at WIPO.
IP-intensive industries account for almost 40% of EU jobs and 47% of its GDP. It is this very success that makes brands vulnerable to another of the world’s fastest-growing industries: counterfeiting and piracy, which now account for 4.7% of all EU imports. Counterfeiters are increasingly linked to organised crime, and sell all types of fake, sub-standard or non-compliant products which harm consumers, reduce state revenue and legal employment, damage the environment and attack the brands whose innovation is a key driver of the EU’s competitiveness.
Since the 1980s, our members have worked with a wide array of other right holders through AIM’s Anti-Counterfeiting Committee to develop and enforce practical solutions. We promote the voice of right holders in EU institutions, through the European Observatory on Infringements of IP Rights, with law enforcement, in the WCO and in WIPO’s Advisory Committee on Enforcement. Our peers have honoured us with the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group’s Award three times.
We also combat the misuse of brand names online. Infringers and cybercriminals deliberately use brand names as the hook to dupe Internet users into believing URLs, websites or messages are trustworthy, and then use their anonymity to engage in phishing, sales of illegal goods or spreading malware. For over 20 years we have been active in the global body that manages the Domain Name System, ICANN, often as elected officers of its Business Constituency, where we work with our global industry partners to combat all such abuse and strive to make the Internet a safe place to conduct business.
