On February 26, 2009 the Spanish Patents and Trade marks Office (“SPTO”) hosted an open conference on the economic impact of IP Piracy. Speakers included representatives of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the vice-president of the Spanish organisation “ANDEMA” (Asociación Española para la Defensa de la Marca), the chairman of the SPTO, the chairman of the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group (GACG), the European Commission (Internal Market Directorate) and the vice-secretary of the Spanish Ministry of Industry.

The speakers tackled a number of issues related to how trade mark piracy is affecting the European economy, and what kind of public & private initiatives are taken to minimise the negative impact of the trade of counterfeited products.

The presentations imparted during the conference are accessible here. Some in Spanish (those by the representatives from the SPTO, the Spanish Ministry of Industry, ANDEMA and the SPTO), while some others are in English (OECD, GACG and the European Commission).