This allows firms to tag boxes and crates with chips which send out signals identifying them as authentic. Many “brand protection” firms have also started to peddle radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to help companies track shipments. Special inks, watermarking, and other “covert” technologies (meaning those invisible to the naked eye) are becoming more popular as a result. Holograms are a cheap way to distinguish real items from fakes, although counterfeiters are getting better at copying them. The technology used to counter pirates is also becoming more sophisticated. Lawsuits brought by companies against manufacturers and distributors of counterfeits are at an all-time high, says Kirsten Gilbert, a partner at Marks & Clerk Solicitors, a British law firm. Complaints from Louis Vuitton, a luxury-goods firm, for example, led to nearly 9,500 seizures of knock-offs last year, 31% more than in 2008. In Europe in 2008 customs services confiscated more than double the previous year’s haul of counterfeit goods.īusinesses, which feel the revenues lost to counterfeiters all the more acutely in a downturn, are making an even greater effort to root out impostors. It subsequently fell by 4% last year-far less than the 25% decline in imports overall (see chart). In 2008 the value of fake goods seized at America’s borders increased by nearly 40% over the year before. Cost-cutting measures may also have made firms’ supply chains more vulnerable to counterfeit parts. Frederick Mostert of the Authentics Foundation, an anti-counterfeiting group, has noticed a “spike” in knock-offs this recession, as consumers short of money trade down from the real thing. The recession in the rich world may also have given a boost to counterfeit goods. MarkMonitor, a firm that helps companies defend brands online, estimates that sales of counterfeit goods via the internet will reach $135 billion this year. The internet in general, and e-commerce sites like eBay in particular, have made it easier to distribute counterfeit goods. The shift of much of the world’s manufacturing to countries with poor protection of intellectual property has provided both the technology and the opportunity to make knock-offs. Several factors have contributed to the growth of counterfeiting in recent years. Counterfeit goods make up 5-7% of world trade, according to the IACC. The International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC), a lobby group, says the true figure is actually closer to $600 billion, because the OECD’s estimate does not include online piracy or counterfeits that are sold in the same country as they are made. The OECD estimates that the international trade in counterfeit and pirated goods was worth around $250 billion in 2007. The number of counterfeit parts in military electronics systems more than doubled between 20, potentially damaging high-tech weapons. A new study by America’s Department of Commerce shows that fakes have even infiltrated the army. Now people are trying to traffic counterfeit items that have a “wider effect on the economy”, she says, such as pharmaceuticals and computer parts. NASA, America’s space agency, has even bought suspect materials.Ĭounterfeiting “used to be a luxury goods problem”, says Therese Randazzo, who is in charge of protecting intellectual property at America’s customs service. A German bank has discovered an ersatz gold ingot made of tungsten in its reserves, according to a German television channel investigating persistent reports that many of the world’s financial institutions have been similarly hoodwinked. Fake Porsches and Ferraris zoom along the streets of Bangkok. Thanks to the rise of the internet and of extended international supply chains, and more recently, to the global economic downturn, counterfeit goods are everywhere. On March 1st Philip Morris, a tobacco giant, sued eight American retailers for selling counterfeit versions of its Marlboro cigarettes. IMITATION is supposed to be the sincerest form of flattery, but that is not how most brands see it. Fake goods are proliferating, to the dismay of companies and governments
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