New regualtions governing counterfeiting and trademark infringements were transposed into Irish law today.
Minister of State for Enterprise Michael Ahern signed the order giving effect to the European Communities (Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights) Regulations 2006, which harmonises Irish rules on pursuing distributors of "fake" products.
The regulations allow for companies and individuals to pursue through the courts those they believe have stolen their intellectual property such as trademarks.
"The new Regulations will assist in the fight against IP infringement, in particular the illegal and widespread phenomenon of counterfeiting and piracy of goods.
This type of theft places a huge burden and cost on industry and for Government it represents lost revenues to the Exchequer," Mr Ahern said.
He added that consumers are also at risk from counterfeiting particularly from bogus drugs - often sold on the Internet.
The sale of fake versions of well known products such as CDs, DVDs and clothing is a multi-billion euro industry world-wide. Customs figures for 2003 show fake goods worth €4.8 million were seized in Ireland.
The black market is worth considerably more and has become more pronounced in recent years as former paramilitaries in the North and border regions in particular run lucrative businesses counterfeiting mainly CDs and DVDs.
According the Garda annual report, there were close to 1,000 detected instances under the forgery and false instruments category.
International corporations such as Nike and Microsoft have been applying pressure on governments throughout the world to address the problem and the new rules are aimed at making it easier to chase down infringers throughout the EU.
The Business and Software Alliance (BSA) estimates that 37 per cent of all software installed in Ireland last year was pirated. In parts of the world such as Russia, China and south east Asia incidents reach 90 per cent, according the BSA.
The directive allows for a claimant to seek a Court Order for disclosure of information from those they believe to be infringing their intellectual property rights.
The claimant can also seek an Order to have goods recalled or destroyed at the expense of the infringer.