Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-09-25-Speech-3-207"
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"en.20020925.10.3-207"2
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". – Mr President, may I begin by expressing my disappointment that the people who have drafted this question are not here. Despite that, I would like to answer the question, if only for the record and because other Members present might be interested in the Commission's answer.
I shall begin by thanking Members of this Parliament for the interest they have shown in this important issue, namely the exhaustion of trade mark rights, whether internationally or just in Europe.
As Members may know from our previous discussion on this issue which took place almost exactly one year ago – on 2 October 2001 – the Commission undertook to prepare a report to Parliament on this subject by the end of this year.
As I stated in our previous discussion, I do not intend to reopen the investigation of issues that the Commission has already studied. Moreover, I explained at that meeting last year that the Commission would only reconsider its decision not to propose a change to the current EU exhaustion regime if new developments justified that. To date, there have been no such developments.
Moreover, and as this relates more specifically to the questions raised by the Members of Parliament who drafted the question, I said last year that the Commission would limit itself to investigating cases of possible abuse of trade mark rights, and especially, but not only, competition aspects.
I would like to make it clear to Members of this Parliament that the Commission has acted fully in accordance with the commitments I made on 2 October last year.
I should like to add that in July this year, my services sent out questionnaires to over sixty companies and organisations representing many small and medium-sized enterprises, including both parallel traders and trademark holders, who might be at most risk from abusive restrictions on the sale in the Community of trademarked goods.
The results of this investigation, combined with our ongoing consultations with other Commission services – in particular our colleagues in the Directorate-General for Competition – should allow us to build a clear picture of whether trademark rights are indeed being abused by right holders to stifle legitimate trade. That report, as promised at our previous meeting, will be transmitted to Parliament by the end of this year.
That is my answer to the question. I shall be most interested to hear what Members have to say about it."@en1
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