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Nigeria Loses About N15bn Annually To Counterfeit Products – SON

An estimated N15 billion is lost annually to fake or counterfeit products in terms of tax revenue to the government, income to local manufacturers and employment generation to Nigerians.

The director, Legal Services, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Suleiman Kawo, dropped this hint when the agency hosted the staff and management of the Nigeria Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, who came on a study tour of the agency in Abuja.

Chanel files lawsuit against company allegedly infringing on its products

Chanel alleges it has lost thousands of dollars and its consumers’ trust after knock-off brands tried to sell identical products under its name. Chanel S.A. filed a lawsuit Sept. 11 in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas against The Individual Partnership.

In its complaint, the French fashion design company alleges the defendants violated its trademark rights when they reproduced counterfeit Chanel trademarks in an attempt to sell products to the public.

https://setexasrecord.com/news/299407-chanel-files-lawsuit-company-allegedly-infringing-products

Zimbabwe: Battery Firms Target 90 Percent Capacity

Battery manufacturers are targeting a manufacturing capacity of up to 90 percent by mid next year but lament the effect smuggled products are having on the sector’s performance.

A number of companies have raised the red flag over the continued smuggling of products which include clothes, cooking oil, batteries and tyres into the country.

Local manufacturers bear the brunt of high input costs and face huge costs of capital at a time when the market is flooded by the cheap illegal imports.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201410291176.html

Chinese artists create counterfeit stock images of artists

Stock Photos are glorious things. Yes, they’re an important tool for sites such as our own, but they’re also, perhaps more often than not, unintentionally hilarious. Services like Thinkstock, Shutterstock and Getty Images have birthed fantastic Tumblrs and Twitter accounts like StockFinds, Completely Unusable Stock Photos, and the somewhat-NSFW Porncomnents. They’re solidly embedded in internet culture, and they’re now also the inspiration behind A Contemporary Portrait of the Internet Artist, a collection of hand-painted copies of stock images of artists created by “underpaid Chinese painters.” The artworks are essentially counterfeits of Getty Images, and in an accompanying press release the team behind the project — the IOCOSE collective — explains the methodology by which they were created will be naturally replicated.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/chinese-artists-create-counterfeit-stock-images-of-artists/

East Africa: Philips to Launch Sms Platform to Curb Counterfeit Products

Philips is setting up an SMS platform in a week’s time that will help consumers with the authentication of the Philips Lighting portfolio in case of doubt.

Once the platform is activated, the consumer (in Kenya) will have to send the 16-digit serial number of the lighting product via SMS to 20222 and they will then receive immediate feedback on whether the product they are planning to buy or have bought is genuine or fake. This is a pilot and if successful, Philips will explore rolling it out to the consumer lifestyle product categories.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201410300209.html

HOMAI re-launched as ASPA, resolves to fight counterfeiting

Hologram Manufacturers Association of India (HOMAI), which was founded in 1998 to represent holographic industry in India, has now been re-launched with a broader mandate as Authentication Solution Providers’ Association (ASPA).

Speaking to PrintWeek India, Manoj Kochar, president, ASPA , said, “As we integrated holograms into packaging products and went onto create ancillaries which incorporated anti-counterfeit properties of the hologram, the concept of authentication solution provider emerged. We saw ourselves as an authentication solution provider.”

Belarus welcomes Lithuania’s decision to tighten border controls

MINSK, 28 October (BelTA) – The State Border Committee of Belarus supports the decision of Lithuania to tighten controls on the state border due to increased smuggling activity, BelTA learned from spokesman for the Belarusian border agency Alexander Tishchenko.

“This is a normal practice to ensure the security of the state in every country. Similar actions have been conducted by Belarus. Belarus takes every effort to prevent smuggling and other offences on the state border,” said Alexander Tishchenko.