Lessons From China’s Counterfeit Crackdown
Beijing resident Wang Wenwen says she frequently trawled China’s online marketplaces for brand-name bargains, but grew tired of receiving obviously fake merchandise. The breaking point was a blue, floral-patterned dress she got for $32 that was advertised as a product of popular Chinese brand Five Plus. Not only wasn’t it a Five Plus dress, she says—no label to be found—it was made with “bad materials, unlike those claimed on the site.” Now Wang makes sure she can see and touch her clothes before she buys them.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-07/lessons-from-china-s-counterfeit-crackdown
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UK cyber cops cuff three in counterfeit Cisco computer kit swoop
THE UK Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has arrested a three-man computer counterfeiting group alleged to have made merry with Cisco intellectual property and hardware.
PIPCU reckons that the three fakers are responsible for the import, export and selling of the hooky networking gear using a relatively sophisticated sales network.
AP Exclusive: Chinese banks a haven for web counterfeits
Kim Sbarcea knew exactly what she wanted. She typed “Tiffany Elsa Peretti mesh earrings” into Google and scrolled through impeccable photos of the delicate $450 diamond-shaped earrings until she chanced upon a pair for — deal of deals! — $32.
The website, tiffany-outletsale.com, looked legit and Sbarcea assumed Tiffany & Co. would not let an unauthorized site use its name. Besides, she could pay by credit card.
RFID and AIDC News: Northwestern University Researchers Claim Breakthrough in Invisible Inks to Thwart Counterfeiting
Researchers and brand companies have been chasing the use of various types of invisible inks to thwart counterfeiting for more than two decades. SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore, for example, says he was tangentially connected to a research project on invisible inks for product verification led by the well-known Battelle Institute in Columbus, OH in the mid-1990s, and research has continued on ever since.
Each application of the ink can be made with a custom formula known only to the producer, which makes it especially hard to copy and suitable for precise identification techniques.
In fact, the idea to identify true goods from counterfeit ones goes back at least until the 13th century, when watermarks were invented to authenticate original documents. Ever since then, printers and forgers/counterfeiters have been in an arms race to out-do each other.
http://www.scdigest.com/ontarget/15-05-07-1.php?cid=9268&ctype=content
Lear MoreOrleans sheriff’s deputy arrested, accused of smuggling drugs, tobacco into OPP
FAKE products are costing the country Sh60 billion annually in lost revenue, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics has said. Newsly appointed Kebs chairman Lucas Maitha said yesterday that trade of counterfeits has become rampant leading to huge losses in the economy. Consequently, he said, Kebs has stepped up the war on illegal and fake goods by appointing a 50-member team which will conduct market surveillance in all counties.
Maitha was speaking during a meeting with the business community in Kilifi.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201505060136.html
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Fake privacy gadgets, from Anonabox to Sever: Fighting a strange and profitable epidemic
Digital privacy and security took center stage in 2013, when we learned the extent of government surveillance on citizens under the Patriot Act. This paved the way for the success of privacy and security focused gadgets such as Blackphone, which received $30 million in investment before a prototype was even made.Combined with increasing public concern about hacking and security, a never-ending wave of too-good-to-be-true privacy gadgets have been raking in the dough through crowdfunding websites such as Indiegogo and Kickstarter.None in the wave of magic gadgets has yet to deliver a single working product — and funders are getting restless.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-sad-strange-and-profitable-fake-privacy-gadget-epidemic/
Lear MoreOfficials vow to stamp out counterfeiting
Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf said commercial fraud and counterfeiting have serious impacts on consumer health and safety.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the 4th Arab Forum on Combating Commercial Fraud and Counterfeiting in Riyadh on Tuesday.
Al-Assaf outlined the reasons behind commercial fraud and counterfeiting and their negative effects on the economy. The minister added that the forum is an extension of the efforts of the government of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman to protect the rights of consumers and producers besides maintaining transparency in all manufactured items.
NHSRC Poised To Enact Controversial Cigarette Warning Label
A coalition of health and labor groups on Monday submitted a pair of initiatives for the 2016 ballot to raise the state’s tobacco tax by $2 a pack, perhaps an acknowledgment that a similar effort moving through the Legislature will ultimately be scuttled. Save Lives California, including the American Heart Association, American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, California Medical Association and SEIU California, filed two measures with the Attorney General’s Office for titles and summaries. Backers will likely decide later which one to take to the streets for signatures and a place on the ballot. One measure allows state tax officials to impose an equivalent tax on electronic cigarettes.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article20223633.html
Lear MoreKenya: Counterfeits Costing Kenya Sh60 Billion Per Year
FAKE products are costing the country Sh60 billion annually in lost revenue, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics has said. Newsly appointed Kebs chairman Lucas Maitha said yesterday that trade of counterfeits has become rampant leading to huge losses in the economy. Consequently, he said, Kebs has stepped up the war on illegal and fake goods by appointing a 50-member team which will conduct market surveillance in all counties.
Maitha was speaking during a meeting with the business community in Kilifi.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201505060136.html
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Except petroleum, no sector saw growth in excise duty collections in FY14: CAG
Petroleum products are the only category that showed a growth in excise duty collections during FY14, on a year-on-year. These products comprised 53 per cent of the total excise duty mop-up in the year, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) said on Tuesday.The other industrial categories such as iron & steel, cement, motor vehicles, and chemical products showed a contraction, CAG said in its report on indirect taxes tabled in Parliament.
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