Europe and the US have long been key to each other’s economic health. According to the Centre for Transatlantic Relations, the transatlantic economy is the largest and wealthiest market in the world: over 50% of world GDP in terms of value and 40% of GDP in terms of purchasing power (The Transatlantic Economy 2014). This high level of transatlantic commercial activity inevitably generates a substantial number of commercial disputes, bringing the complex issue of jurisdiction into play. All well and good where the contract contains an effective and explicit jurisdiction clause; but where it doesn’t, the question of which legal jurisdiction a claim falls under could be a matter of choice (or i
A new study from OHIM, the EU's intellectual property agency, shows that the sale of fake clothes, shoes and accessories in the EU equals nearly 10 per cent of the total sales in the sector throughout the EU-28. The lost revenue discovered by OHIM translates into 363,000 lost jobs, as the legitimate manufacturers and retailers make and sell less than they would have done in the absence of counterfeiting and therefore employs fewer workers. When the knock-on effects on suppliers are taken into account, legitimate businesses across the EU lose €43.3 billion of sales revenue because of counterfeiting, with around 518,000 jobs lost. Since producers and sellers of fakes do not pay tax, social con
