The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) is the implementing agency for a number of IP EU-funded projects abroad, such as the IP Key. This EU program is the largest and most important of the kind. In 2019, the EU commission started a Mid-Term evaluation process of the IPKey Program, to verify the current quality of its implementation.
The evaluation, conducted by three International experts (including Riccardo Ciullo), covered all three IP keys for China, South East Asia and Latin America and their implementation for the years 2017-2019. The work included field missions in China, Vietnam, Thailand and Latin America, several meetings with relevant stakeholders such as foreign Ministries, Judges, Embassies and EU delegations in the selected countries. The work started on September 2019 and finalized on February 2020 with the drafting of a confidential evaluation report, including suggestions for possible improvement, for the EU Commission’s consideration.