That represents an increase of 17% on 2006, when 37,000 seizures were made.
However, the number of counterfeit and pirated items seized fell from 128 million in 2006 to 79 million in 2007, reflecting fewer seizures of cigarettes and CDs/DVDs. In some other sectors, including cosmetics and personal care, the number of seizures increased dramatically (see chart 1 on page 2).
EU Taxations and Customs Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said in a statement that counterfeiting poses a danger to health, safety and the economy: “I welcome the close cooperation between industry and Customs to stop suspicious shipments of counterfeited goods at the border before they disappear in the internal market.”
Last year, more than 10,000 applications were filled in by industry requesting Customs actions in cases where there is a suspicion of counterfeiting (see chart 2). These applications led to 80% of the seizures in 2007. Kovacs said that input from industry is “vital” in helping Customs detect counterfeits.
China is the source of 58% of counterfeit goods, with unknown origin (16%), Turkey (5%), India (3%) and Georgia (3%) the next biggest sources.
Clothing and accessories account for 61% of the total number of cases seized, and 22% of the number of articles. Cigarettes account for only 1% of the number of cases, but 34% of the number of articles.
Governments and brand holders worldwide are planning a series of initiatives to reduce counterfeiting worldwide, speakers at an INTA session on efforts to combat counterfeiting said yesterday. Kevin R. Brown of Nike urged in-house counsel to get behind the new Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement that aims to “go beyond TRIPs” by helping different enforcement agencies communicate better, establish best practices and define legal terms such as what constitutes piracy on a commercial scale.
The US, EU, Canada, Japan, Norway, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and Switzerland will start negotiating the treaty at the beginning of June and are aiming to complete work for the end of the year. “If your country isn’t involved, write to you local politician and find out why,” Brown said.
Brown was also critical of the current legal framework to protect brand holders from counterfeiting in Canada, especially the fact that Customs officials do not have ex officio authority to confiscate counterfeit goods. But he was optimistic that the Canadian government will pass a stronger trademark law later in 2008. During the 127th INTA Annual Meeting in San Diego, Nike and a group of companies equally frustrated with weak trademark protection in Canada formed the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network. Since then this network has been working hard to educate Canadian politicians from all parties and has produced reports on the extent of the counterfeiting problem in Canada to speed up the legislative process.
Brown said that, although China often gets a bad press as the biggest producer of counterfeits: “The General Administration of Customs does the best job in the world in terms of border measures at the point of export.” All speakers at the session made the point that it is not enough for governments to pass laws that comply with TRIPs – without regulations enabling Customs to enforce them counterfeiting cannot be curbed.
In a summary of the state of trademark enforcement in Asia, Prathiba Singh of Singh & Singh Advocates admitted that the region “has a long way to go in combating counterfeiting” but pointed out improvements such as the specialist IP/IT Court in Thailand and said that innovative ideas will help the situation improve in all countries, especially China.
Vanessa Backman of adidas International told delegates how the House of Representatives passed the Pro-IP Act (HR4279) on May 8. Although it focuses on copyright protection, the Act also eliminates the personal exemption for bringing counterfeit products into the US and contains measures to help deal with trademark infringement in free-trade zones.
