Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) – Record Participation at Sixteenth Session

From January 31 to February 2, 2024, representatives of WIPO Member States, observers, academia and the private sector came together and exchanged experiences on IP enforcement and building respect for IP. With 272 on-site and remote participants, the sixteenth ACE session was the best-attended one to date.

Thirty expert presentations and three panel discussions covered the following topics:

• challenges and solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in IP enforcement,
• addressing offline and online IP infringement,
• artificial intelligence (AI) and IP enforcement,
• coordinating IP enforcement,
• prosecuting IP crimes, and
• raising awareness on the importance of respect for IP.

Within this framework, the results of five WIPO-commissioned studies and two WIPO-administered surveys were also presented.

On a lighter – but equally important – side, the third edition of the ACE Cinema showcased 40 short anti-counterfeiting and anti-piracy awareness-raising videos produced by WIPO Member States and private sector associations.

The session also featured the Be Real – Spot the Fake exhibition, organized by WIPO’s Building Respect for IP Division in collaboration with private and public sector partners. Participants were able to see counterfeit products that pose health and safety risks alongside genuine products. A QR code was provided to allow participants to try to distinguish between the two, and out of the 240 responses, nearly 70 per cent got it right – well spotted!  The exhibition was fun, interactive and visually impactful in highlighting the health and safety risks consumers face when buying and using fakes.

All written contributions, studies and presentations are available on the ACE/16 webpage. The session is also available by video on demand.