Fake Beats by Dr Dre headphones worth £250,000 seized
FAKE headphones worth £250,000 have been seized from a Radcliffe property after a swoop by Bury trading standards officers. The haul of more than 1,000 pairs of counterfeit ‘Beats by Dr Dre’ headphones was discovered after the council received an anonymous tip off. Legitimate versions of the best-selling premium headphones, famed for their red ‘b’ logo and their popularity with celebrities, sell for more than £300 each. Council investigations are still ongoing but no arrests have been made and the address of the property has not been revealed. Lorraine Chamberlin, Bury Council’s head of environmental protection, said: “We urge consumers to boycott counterfeits – it is the only way to foil the global network of criminals which controls this hugely profitable trade in fakes.”When Bury Council’s trading standards officers took a pair of the counterfeit ‘Beats’ out of their box to examine them, one of the ear pads instantly fell off.
Lear MorePolice Bust Counterfeiting Clothing Factory in Moscow Region
Police in the Moscow region have busted an illegal production center where more than 2,500 immigrants from Southeast Asia had been employed making clothes with fake labels of well-known foreign brands. The sweatshop in the suburban town of Lvanteyevka was based at a former textile factory where the immigrants, who are thought to be in the country illegally, lived in unsanitary conditions, the Interior Ministry said on its website Thursday. The clothes were made “in violation of the requirements for the safety of life and health of Russian consumers,” and then sold throughout Moscow, the ministry said. Police have confiscated 70 tons of counterfeit clothing made by 2,000 sewing machines at the factory.
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Yahoo Movies, U.K. Anti-Piracy Site Team Up
LONDON – U.K. anti-piracy site Findanyfilm.com has partnered with Yahoo! Movies U.K. and Ireland to push movie fans towards legitimate content sources in the fight against piracy. The site said the move was “one of a series of partnerships transforming FindAnyFilm from a useful destination for film fans to visit to a powerful intervention tool, actively seeking them and connecting them with where they can buy legal content.” The partnership embeds the FindAnyFilm database alongside movie-centric content on Yahoo. There will be “book now” and “watch now” buttons appearing on news articles and review pages across the Yahoo Movies site, enabling viewers to book cinema tickets and watch films via legitimate digital services. Yahoo Movies has also teamed up with FindAnyFilm to provide users with a list of the U.K. top films playing in theaters, which will appear across all Yahoo Movies pages on the right hand side, together. The partners will also offer buttons enabling people to then book cinema tickets for these films quickly and easily.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/yahoo-movies-uk-anti-piracy-662659
Lear MoreA bargain gift ? Careful, it could be counterfeit
This holiday shopping season there have been some eye-popping bargains so far. But mixed in with all these great deals are some not-so-great offers. Yes, the price is rock bottom but the merchandise is a knock-off, a counterfeit version of the brand you think you are getting.“Almost everyone wants a good deal and wants to save money, but buying counterfeit poses serious health and safety risks, not to mention loss of revenue to businesses,” said Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood. “As parents, we need to set the example for our children and explain to them the consequences of buying counterfeit products.”Safety is an important issue. Counterfeit goods haven’t undergone safety inspections like the real version of the product. They could pose a danger to the recipients.
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Once piracy havens, China’s Internet video websites turn police
BEIJING (Reuters) – The website of China’s biggest Internet video company Youku Tudou Inc was once a haven for illicit Hollywood blockbusters and hit South Korean soap operas, until it realized piracy really doesn’t pay. Now the company that controls almost a third of China’s booming online video market forks out more than a billion yuan ($164 million) a year on licenses so it can legally distribute movies and shows like “The Walking Dead”, a strategy expected to result in its first ever quarterly net profit.
And to protect this market share, Youku Tudou employs a dozen sleuths who scour the web for pirated content, highlighting how China’s online video industry is courting higher advertising revenues and better relations with foreign media firms by cracking down on illegal content.”The biggest challenge is that there are more new ways to pirate video as the technology develops,” Lu Changjun, the head of Youku Tudou’s Internet police squad, told Reuters.
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With the Holiday Shopping Season Comes Crackdowns on Counterfeit Goods
Cyber Monday is an opportunity for legitimate online merchants to capitalize on the holiday shopping season—but it’s also a time when a slew of websites look to sell consumers counterfeit goods. Online and offline scammers sell about $250 billion of fake brand name items annually in the US alone, with the design and fashion industries particularly hard hit. This past Cyber Monday, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) worked together with European and Hong Kong authorities to seize some 700 websites, 297 of them based in the US, that were selling counterfeit goods. It is the fourth year that such sites have been targeted on Cyber Monday. ICE Acting Director John Sandweg said, “Working with our international partners on operations like this shows the true global impact of IP [Intellectual Property] crime,” in a press release. “Counterfeiters take advantage of the holiday season and sell cheap fakes to unsuspecting consumers everywhere. Consumers need to protect themselves, their families, and their personal financial information from the criminal networks operating these bogus sites.”
http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2013/12/05/Cyber-Monday-Counterfeit-Crackdown-120513.aspx
Lear MoreCyber Monday Sting Operation: International Strikeforce Seizes 706 Counterfeit Websites In Undercover Crackdown
An international strike force formed by 11 law enforcement agencies seized and shut down 706 websites on Cyber Monday that were accused of selling counterfeit merchandise. It’s the sting operation’s fourth year, showing that governments have made “Project Cyber Monday” as much of an annual tradition as retailers have Cyber Monday itself. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the websites were duping customers into unknowingly purchasing counterfeit goods on Cyber Monday, a day known for online retailers giving major discounts on their products to kick off the holiday shopping season. ICE seized 297 domain names while Europol seized 393 and Hong Kong Customs seized another 16.ICE said these sites not only flood the market with fake products, they can also compromise the personal financial information of customers.
Lear MoreCounterfeit industry tools seized in raids
DOHA: Thousands of counterfeit Stanley Black & Decker products were seized during recent raids by Alpha International for Intellectual Property, a Qatari Intellectual Property Protection and Enforcement firm, and the Ministry of Business and Trade. Raids were conducted following tip-offs from the company and the UAE-based IP enforcement firm, The Legal Group (TLG). The move aimed at combating trade in counterfeit products and protecting consumer rights. Among the products seized were Stanley branded spirit levels, aviation snips and chalk lines as well as DEWALT and Black & Decker branded cutting discs. Youssef Al Suwaidi, Director of the Consumer Protection Department at the ministry, said, “The Qatar Government is continuing efforts with collective expertise to secure consumer rights and revenues of manufacturers by cracking down on criminals that prosper from the grey market.
Lear MoreIn global op, feds help seize websites selling fake goods
In an operation involving 10 foreign law enforcement agencies, the Department of Homeland Security helped seize more than 700 websites selling counterfeit goods on Cyber Monday, the busiest online shopping day of the year. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is part of Homeland Security, said its agents worked with Europol, the European Union’s police coordinating body, and the customs agency of Hong Kong.“It was good old-fashioned police work,” said Justin Cole, a spokesman for the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, a multi-agency task force in Washington.The center’s Project Cyber Monday IV obtained court orders against 297 U.S.-based Web domains that had sold counterfeit goods to undercover Homeland Security agents. The goods ranged from electronics to sportswear to jewelry. “Once we have evidence from the copyright holder that the goods are fraudulent, we can go and get a seizure warrant signed by a federal magistrate,” Mr. Cole said.
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Sharp increase in seizures of potentially dangerous counterfeit alcohol in year to date
The Revenue Commissioners have seized 3.5 times more potentially harmful counterfeit alcohol in the first seven months of 2013 than it did in the full year in 2012.Revenue officials carried out 12 seizures of counterfeit alcohol up to up to the end of July in which 840 litres were seized. This compares to just seven seizures in 2012 in which 232 litres were recovered. In 2011, 1,309 litres were seized in 20 operations.A spokeswoman for Revenue said spirits, mainly vodka, was the alcoholic product most likely to be counterfeited. She said the counterfeit alcohol was produced illegally, usually using genuine bottles sourced from recycling centres and pubs. The bottles were filled with raw alcohol to a predetermined level before being diluted with water to a strength equivalent to other alcoholic spirits on the market.
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