Forgery and Counterfeiting

Résumé du document

In the last few years, forgery has increased at a very rapid rate, and is now a world-wide industrial and cultural phenomenon. Forgery is not just limited to the luxury sector, but permeates the manufacture of all goods, so that all industries are concerned about the scourge. The issue of forgery has a major economic impact on society. It represents 5 to 9 % of the world's economic transactions. A number of gangsters have been identified as being involved in this sector. After the weapons and the drug markets, the counterfeiting market is considered the most profitable. As a consequence of forgery, the legal turnover of firms' declines as does their market shares and distribution network. This has the potential to "kill" not only the authentic product, but also the brand. Counterfeiting has been on the rise since 1995. The shortfall for companies due to it is nearly 200 to 300 billion Euros per year. France has experienced and average shortfall of 6 billion Euros. In France, one company in every two is a victim of imitation. The phenomenon is snowballing and as opposed to 25 million products seized in 1999, 85 million products were seized in the EU in 2002. The networks of manufacture and marketing of imitations show a geographical expansion, in which no country is spared. Asia is the leading producer of imitations and produces 95 % of the fake products in the markets.

Extraits

[...] And one speaks here only about the visible part of the counterfeit! The silk market” condemned by Chinese justice The Union of the Manufacturers and his President Marc-Antoine Jamet, are delighted by the first judgment by the civil court of Beijing of the “silk Market”, high place of sale of products forging located in the middle of the Chinese capital. Five large houses (Burberry, Chanel, Gucci, Prada and Vuitton) marked a point in the fight against the counterfeit in China, thanks to the validation of their complaint by the civil court of Beijing, deposited against the owner of the Market of Silk, the company Xiushui Haosen Clothing Market Co, which manages a supermarket of the forgery to a few hundred meters of the Prohibited City and the district of the hotels. [...]

[...] In this era of delocalized production, it is increasingly expensive to check the origin of the products. Systematically to check the origin of each part is likely to put the manufacturer in bankruptcy. Circulation of capital forever is also fluid. The barrier of the languages constitutes another factor playing in favour of the counterfeit. The sums concerned constitute powerful inciting to produce at lower cost. The desire to obtain products at the best possible price is another inciting. It is enough to think of the drugs to discuss the AIDS. [...]

[...] Little country has a repressive arsenal as elaborate as France where drawings and models are protected, like the marks. However for example in the United States, if there are a trade-mark law, the drawings and models of functional objects (as clothing) are not protected at all, which prevents any fight against the counterfeit and any continuation. This situation is the result of a jurisprudence established since of the centuries, resulting from the respect from the free competition and principle of functionality, which wants that any utility purpose belongs by nature to the public domain. [...]

[...] “Prohibited Directions” refer to a field of products, whose counterfeits have adverse effects or harmful effects on our organization and our health by disturbing hearing, the sense of smell, the touch, the sight and the taste. - “Software: the purpose of No Copy” (2003-2004) was to sensitize on what are the software: in fact true works took months, even years of work of design and development. They are protected by the code from the intellectual property, like a literary or artistic work. The copy of software is lawful and is sanctioned by the law. [...]

[...] This raise is associated to the international sports events. Today, the quality of fake products mislead the consumer and increase the healthcare and security dangers. The gangster networks are very reactive compare to the new government laws. In 2005 one CD on 3 and 43 per cent of software are fake. Internet and forgery: the EBay case In 12 September 2006, Michael Jacobson, Vice-president of EBay decides with Marc-Antoine Jamet (president of products protection) to install a counterfeiting fight between us. [...]