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Verbatim report of proceedings
Tuesday, 2 October 2001 - Strasbourg OJ edition

Exhaustion of trade mark rights
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  Fourtou (PPE-DE). – (FR) Madam President, first of all, I would like to congratulate Mr Mayer who, in spite of some extremely polarised positions, listened and put forward an alternative in the form of a proposal for further consideration, which met with everyone’s approval. This position is all the more important and necessary since the report refers to the crucial problems related to globalisation and European integration. In addition to the direct interests of consumers and manufacturers, the economic position of the European Union in world trade is at stake. Some may be in favour of a total liberalisation of trade, whereas others, myself included, believe that the system of Community exhaustion responds to the need to develop the integration of the single market, a favourable way of supporting Europe in the face of global competition. Apart from the concept of integration, the crux of this report is to support innovation, and God knows how much we have spoken about this in the previous report, to support innovation and creativity within the Community. Trade marks are the most important and most efficient way of protecting intellectual property. Trade marks provide the consumer with a guarantee of a product’s authenticity and quality, and they ensure pre-sales, shape investment and, consequently, creation. A change in the system could lead to a drop in investment in research and development of European products and the impact on jobs could be significant. The current system also provides the best means of protection against counterfeiting, as the channels used by parallel importers are often those used to transport pirate products. In the studies that are currently available, and I stress the ‘currently’, we found no relevant information enabling us to justify a change to the system, which could be detrimental to innovation. I hope that the further consideration proposed by Mr Mayer will confirm this opinion.

 
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