News

Counterfeit luxury goods move further upmarket in China

When people in China carry designer bags bearing the logos of Louis Vuitton or Gucci, they are often asked whether they authentic or counterfeit. Now the country’s makers of counterfeit luxury goods go a step further by offering “tailor-made” services and have even opened “high-end private clubs” on social media sites, our sister paper Want Daily reports. Little Min, manager of a luxury bag shop in Haikou’s Top United, sells various levels of counterfeit luxury bags and even offers tailor-made counterfeit bags priced atmore than 8,000 yuan (US$1,300), or even 10,000 yuan (US$1,650) each, according to a Beijing media report. Min said her shop can offer a tailor-made Hermes Crocodile Birkin Bag, a genuine edition of which is sold for more than 100,000 yuan (US$16,500), but the counterfeit she sells is such a fine imitation, complete with identification certificate, that not even experts can tell the difference, she says. The counterfeit bag sells for less than half the price of the genuine article.

Policymakers must address the growing counterfeit drug menace

Today, when we Americans swallow a pill from a bottle that was filled by our local pharmacy, we tend not to give it much thought. We trust that the pills are what the doctor ordered, will do what they’re intended, and will be safe. But it is not that way everywhere in the world, and there are no longer any guarantees even in the United States.

The idea of compromised prescription medicines is difficult for many Americans to grasp. Because our drug system is so tightly regulated, there is no place where medicines are safer and more reliable.  As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continually refines and improves the way it reviews and certifies the safety of medicines, the end result is that the U.S. supply chain is the gold standard of drug safety. People living in certain other parts of the world don’t have it so good.  While data remains scarce, the World Health Organization estimates that upwards of 30 percent of the drug supply in some developing nations is counterfeit.

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/199593-policymakers-must-address-the-growing-counterfeit-drug-menace#ixzz2v0cij7ek

Fake products in high demand

The Indonesian Anti-Counterfeiting Society (MIAP), the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) and the US Embassy have stepped up efforts to raise awareness about the dangers of counterfeit medicine and cosmetics.  MIAP chairperson Widyaretna Buenastuti said such awareness was very important to stop the distribution of fake drugs and cosmetics as it could reduce the demand.

“When we reduce the demand, we automatically reduce the distribution as the producers stop producing them. This is what we will be doing so that fake products will have no place in the country,” Widyaretna said. BPOM chairman Roy Sparringa said he supported the MIAP campaign, since counterfeit drugs and cosmetics could be harmful to health and could result in death.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/02/28/demand-fake-products-remains.html

Counterfeit goods in transit: First round in favour of trademark owners!

On Monday 25 February 2014, as part of the future “Trade marks package” discussions, Members of the European Parliament adopted the Gallo- Rapkayamendment, restoring to European customs services the ability to control and stop trademark counterfeit goods in transit through the EU. The text adopted has in fact overturned the European Court of Justice’s Nokia/Philipsdecision, which had the practical effect of withdrawing this prerogative from customs, resulting in a drastic reduction of the number of counterfeit goods seized.  This is a victory for rights holders. Indeed, the text voted by the Parliament – if adopted as such by the Council of the European Union – should result in a significant reinforcement of the global fight against counterfeit goods without affecting the trade in legitimate goods as set by WITO international rules.

http://www.twobirds.com/en/news/articles/2014/france/sanction-du-transit-par-le-droit-des-marques-communautaires

Bulgaria police bust large-amount of smuggled goods

Haskovo. Some 103,200 pieces of cigarettes without excise stamps, 317 pairs of trainers and 645 textile items of protected brands, as well as 712 undeclared textile items and detergents have been found and confiscated in an operation carried out at the Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint, the press office of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry announced.
Two mini-vans and four cars underwent thorough checks at the border checkpoint. All drivers were Bulgarian citizens from Svilengrad.
Five pre-court proceedings have been initiated. Work on the cases continues. 

Counterfeit trade US$250 billion a year

‘The counterfeit goods industry is so sophisticated that it is often impossible to distinguish between the real deal and the spurious pretender. It is also cunningly stratified to cater to different sizes of consumer pockets…This is a common occurrence in markets with poor governance structures, especially for goods of high value brands like Swiss watches’.  Last month, the United Nations launched a global campaign to highlight the extent of the growing rampancy of trading in counterfeit goods and its irrevocable link with organised crime, thus posing great risks to the international community.  According to the world body’s estimates, the volume of trade in counterfeit goods amounts to a whopping US$250 billion a year, which is more than the combined GDP of dozens of nations put together. And these are only estimates. The real figure might be far bigger, going by the extent of such trade across a wide swathe of product categories and its geographical spread. To put this scenario as alarming is to put it rather mildly.