EU Ambassador: Israel should do more to prevent counterfeiting

At a meeting held last week with Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce president Uriel Lynn EU Ambassador to Israel Ramiro Cibrian Uzal said that "Israel should adopt the highest international standards for protecting intellectual property rights."
 
The Ambassador noted in his address that "Israel is not doing enough to prevent counterfeiting".
 
Mr. Ramiro Cibrian Uzal added that "Israel should protect intellectual property rights in line with Israel's association agreement with the EU."
 
Lynn, president of the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce said that the Federation of Chambers of Commerce was in favor of systematically and strongly fight to preserve intellectual property rights, and was working hard to minimize counterfeiting.
 
Lynn noted that six years ago, the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce established a roof organization to combat counterfeiting and copyright infringement. Lynn emphasized that the establishment of the organization improved public and government awareness of the domestic and international damage caused to Israeli companies from forgeries, as well as harm to consumers.
 
The organization, according to Lynn, cooperated closely with the Israel Police force.  According to Lynn statistics gathered by the Federation indicated that the annual direct financial damage from forgeries at NIS 1.1 billion. It was also estimated that the loss in state revenues (income tax, VAT, customs duties, purchase tax,) from unreported sales of counterfeit goods, was at almost NIS 400 million.
 
In addition, the financial burden to the business sector was high. According to Lynn, in 2003 the business sector spent NIS 14 million to fight counterfeiting.