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Patent Attorney Axel H Horns' Blog on Intellectual Property Law.

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Monday, March 10, 2008

Mr José Manuel Durão Barroso, President of the European Commission: "Counting the Cost of Counterfeits: Fakes Cost More"

From a

Mr José Manuel Durão Barroso, President of the European Commission, titlted "Counting the Cost of Counterfeits: Fakes Cost More" delivered at the

Global Anti-Counterfeit Summit, Brussels, 10 March 2008:

"[...] As in other areas of the economy, without demand, there would be no market to supply. All too often, consumers knowingly buy faked high street products, thinking that no harm will come from such venial behaviour. As long as they think they are getting a good deal, the trade in fake goods will continue.

So let's be frank. Previous campaigns that have tried to frighten consumers by simply focusing on the illegal nature of buying counterfeit goods are not sufficient. The only way we will change consumer behaviour is by raising awareness of the hidden costs of fake goods.

And here, the expansion of counterfeiting from a cottage industry to a global business, making forgeries of virtually anything, can help us.

Now, we are no longer just talking about poor quality fake T-shirts. We are talking about fake toasters that pose a serious risk of electric shock or fire.

We are talking about fake tubes of a major brand of toothpaste which contain high levels of potentially dangerous micro-organisms.

We are talking about fake mobile phone toys for infants that contain more than 20 times the maximum limit of 'migratable' lead, which can leach out when the product is sucked or chewed.

If anyone thinks I am just scaremongering, this is only a small selection of the products actually seized by EU customs over the last 12 months...

IP protection is no longer just a question of safeguarding an economy that relies on quality and innovation. It is no longer just a question of clamping down on crime.

It has become a question of consumer health and safety. Of tackling the dark side of product safety. There are no accidents or negligence here, but well calculated criminal strategies with devastating effects on our economies, on our health and environment, on our safety and security.

This is the message we have to start sending to our citizens.

The role of consumer education is paramount. From early years and throughout their adulthood, consumers should become aware that the choices they make every day shape the world, for better or for worse.

Confident and empowered consumers will increasingly demand safe products for themselves and their families, and will eventually start to turn away from fakes.

The Commission has made a start. Last summer, nearly 2.5 million diaries were distributed to schools across the EU, with information about what the union can offer young people. It contains a whole section on brands and the dangers of fake goods.

We have also developed, in co-operation with institutions of higher education, web-based consumer education tools for citizens in all 27 Member States. These are targeted at consumers in general or trainers. They go beyond the simple provision of general information, to include learning exercises and other interactive material.

They tackle basic consumer rights, the advantages of the internal market, and possibilities of redress in case of problems. Again, the risks of counterfeit goods feature prominently.

But more needs to be done, and organisations like the Authentics Foundation have a crucial contribution to make.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The time has come to educate consumers about the true cost of counterfeit products: the damage to our economy and our future; the organised crime; the child labour and appalling work conditions that often lie behind such products, the risk to consumers' own health and safety.

In the end, the message is clear: fakes cost more. [...]"

The host of the event, the

Authentics Foundation is, according to their own

mission statement, an international nongovernmental organization dedicated to raising public awareness of counterfeits. Its primary goal is to educate consumers about the negative aspects of the counterfeit market, including money laundering, drug cartels, paramilitary involvement, organized criminal gang associations, child labor, and risks to one's safety. The website says the Authentics Foundation was started by

Mr Frederick Mostert, Ms Princess Corinna Sayn Wittgenstein,

Mr Timothy Trainer and

Mr Chen Xuemin, who are also involved in the

Confucius Foundation.

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It is correct to point out safety concerns, but in the case of low-cost items such as toothpaste and toasters, I doubt consumers are aware they are buying fakes, and it will be difficult to educate them enough to check. On the other hand, as the profit per transaction is lower, it's hard to imagine low-end counterfeiting really taking off.

# posted by

patenttranslations : 20 March, 2008 17:33

The other irritating thing is that most of the stuff lumped under intellectual "property" (turn, spit) is irrelevant for counterfeiting/consumer-safety issues.

Sure, a counterfeit good might infringe a patent, but that's not what makes it a risk to consumers - in fact, if it infringes the patent, it might well work as designed.

Trademark and consumer protection laws are all that's required to protect consumers. Patent and copyright monopolies are just profiteering by regulatory capture.

This illustrates why it's so important to point out the problems with the term inteellectual "property": it encourages woolly thinking, and consumer-harmful price-raising anticompetitive patent monopolies are lumped in with consumer-beneficial traceability-enhancing quality-guaranteeing things like trademarks.

Bad, bad bad.

# posted by

Anonymous : 30 March, 2008 00:40

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Please read the Disclaimer & About This Website (Pflichtangaben gemäss TDG) section. Feel free to contact PA Axel H Horns via e-mail horns@ipjur.com. BEWARE: DO NOT SEND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION UNENCRYPTED VIA E-MAIL. USE OF ENCRYPTION SOFTWARE IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. PA AXEL H HORNS IS PROVIDING SUPPORT FOR ENCRYPTED E-MAIL MESSAGES USING PGP OR PGP COMPATIBLE FORMATS. THE PGP PUBLIC KEY FOR PA AXEL H HORNS IS AVAILABLE HERE. THE GnuPG PUBLIC KEY FOR PA AXEL H HORNS IS AVAILABLE HERE. Dipl.-Phys. Axel H Horns is Patentanwalt (German Patent Attorney), European Patent Attorney as well as European Trade Mark Attorney. In particular, he is Member of:
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