Collaring forgers
Trade fairs are for ordering, not for stealing. They have good reason to take trademark counterfeiting and product piracy seriously. Bans on photography, seizure of suspected counterfeits, arbitration centres - the organisers are increasingly taking the initiative
The designer and founder of busse design ulm, Rido Busse, has a special relationship with the Frankfurt consumer goods fair Ambiente. In 1977, he came across an exact counterfeit of the 8600 letter/diet scales he had designed for Soehnle-Waagen on the stand of a Hong Kong manufacturer - at 1/6 of the original price, but much poorer quality. This prompted Busse to draw the public's and lawmakers attention to this state of affairs and heighten awareness of the economic damage caused by counterfeiting by awarding a negative prize . That was how the "Plagiarius" was born. It is awarded to the most brazen-faced counterfeiter each year at Ambiente in Frankfurt. Its symbol is a black garden gnome with a golden nose (representing the profits made by the counterfeiters).
What began as clumsy attempts at copying in garage workshops has mushroomed into a highly professional industry with a global network. According to the ICC London (International Chamber of Commerce), the Mafia and organised crime are even behind it. "The profit margins are now greater than in drug dealing and smuggling, while the penalties are ridiculously low" is the explanation given by the Plagiarius campaign. Forgers with growing know-how and the latest technology are producing better and better quality imitations to the extent that even experts have trouble telling the originals apart from the counterfeits and fakes. "It is extremely difficult, time-consuming and costly to track down forgers. That is why it is important to make the public aware of the damage done by product piracy. Because it affects us all", warns Anton Wolfgang Graf from Faber-Castell in his accolade at the award of the negative prize.
The European Commission estimates that 7 to 10 % of world trade already consists of fakes and counterfeits, that the resulting economic damage world-wide is in the region of EUR 200 to EUR 300 billion a year and that more than 200,000 jobs are lost in this way. And it's getting worse. Faber-Castell: "Product pirates do not go through economic crises. Unlike many other sectors, the global forgery and counterfeiting business boomed last year. German Customs and Excise confiscated counterfeits worth EUR 91 million in 2005 alone."
"More and more unscrupulous forgers, and they are not all Asians, are copying the ideas of successful companies and presenting them as their own achievements. Where there are fat profits to be had, even western companies and dealers are increasingly riding roughshod over ethical considerations", Rido Busse complained at the black gnome award. A sorry state of affairs: "For example, among the current 58 nominees for the Plagiarius competition, around two thirds of the counterfeits were manufactured or sold in Europe (including about 50 % in Germany); only one third originated from China or Southeast Asia." The designer went on: "The losers are the creative, honest companies: reduction in sales, loss of market share, trashing of brand credibility, unjustified product liability actions. When quality and safety standards are neglected, consumers also feel the adverse impact of fakes and counterfeits." Low-quality products have been shown to jeopardise health and even life.
Product piracy and trademark counterfeiting has also become a top priority for politics and business. For example, the German government wants to beef up the rights of holders of industrial property rights. The aim is to fight the world-wide trade in fakes and counterfeits more effectively and to tighten and harmonise the penalties under criminal law throughout Europe.
m+a report Nr.2 / 2006 vom 24.03.2006
m+a report vom 24. März 2006