Faked in China: Inside the Pirates’ Web

(Reuters/News Center)

Anybody could tell right away that the Louis Vuitton shoulder bag was fake because it was delivered in a recycled box that once shipped batteries.

Warnings printed on the inside of the box read: “Danger Contains Sulfuric Acid” and “Poison - Causes Severe Burns” — not the sort of messages that would normally accompany a product from one of the world's most iconic luxury brands.

But it sure looked real. It was dark brown, sported a braided strap with brass fittings and the Louis Vuitton monogramme stamped all across the bag.

I had ordered the bag from a website called www.ericwhy.com for this special report, which explores the growing problem of counterfeit merchandise sold over the Internet.

Reuters wanted to trace the problem from a consumer in Washington D.C. to the shadowy producers based in Guangzhou China, where my colleague Melanie Lee found the illicit workshops and markets. Read more here.

INTERPOL and Hong Kong Customs Join Forces to Improve Regional Police and Customs Anti-Counterfeiting Co-operation

(Web Newswire)

Greater emphasis on the leadership role of police and customs and the benefits of working collaboratively is the focus of the 2010 International Law Enforcement Intellectual Property (IP) Crime Conference which opened today (October 19) in Hong Kong.

The conference is the first to be held in Asia and brings together some 500 law specialist IP crime investigators, prosecutors and private sector investigators from 48 countries. Co-hosted by INTERPOL and Hong Kong Customs in partnership with Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL), the three-day event (19-21 October) concentrates on collective efforts to work together to break organized crime. It will include a series of operational workshops to enable subject matter experts to discuss how all those affected by counterfeiting and piracy can better work together to break up the organized criminal gangs which manufacture and distribute fake goods on a regional and increasingly global scale. Read more here.

Related: Text of AG Holder's Remarks Before Intellectual Property Summit in China

Countries Release Text of Anti-Counterfeiting Pact

(Reuters – Doug Palmer)

An international pact to fight global trade in counterfeit and pirated goods moved closer to reality on Wednesday when countries participating in the talks released the final draft of the proposed deal.

“This text reflects tremendous progress in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy – a global crime wave that robs workers in the United States and around the world of good-paying jobs and exposes consumers to dangerous products,” U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement.

China, the source of much of world’s counterfeit goods production, was not a party to the talks.

Kirk called on the nearly 40 participating countries to quickly finalize the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) after reaching a tentative deal last week in Tokyo. “The leadership shown by our ACTA partners in reaching solutions on tough issues should send a strong message to pirates and counterfeiters that they have no place in the channels of legitimate trade,” Kirk said. Read more here.

Tokyo Anti-Counterfeiting Talks Deliver Deal

(Business Spectator – Reuters)

Nearly 40 nations on Saturday reached basic agreement in international trade talks aimed at reducing copyright and trademark theft that causes losses of billions of dollars annually.

One of the key features of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will mandate that customs officials have “ex officio” authority to seize counterfeit goods without a request from the rights holders or a court order, according to statements from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). Read more here.

India Protests Against US Trade Barriers at WTO

(Economic Times)

India at WTO today protested against escalating tariff and non-tariff barriers imposed by the on Indian goods and services including enhanced visa fee on Indian short-term services providers and the ban in Ohio on state outsourcing projects.

New Delhi cautioned the USA on its recent trade initiatives, particularly the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA), saying “they contribute collectively to undermining not only the (Trade related Intellectual Property Rights) agreement but the multilateral trading system as well in some measure.”

“The US, which is the undisputed leader of the global trade arena, needs to set the bar high for the other nations to emulate” instead of delaying compliance with trade rulings pronounced by the WTO’s dispute settlement body, it said. Read more here.

Watered-down ACTA Approaching Conclusion

(Bridges Weekly)

Controversial multi-country negotiations on an “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement” are within striking distance of conclusion, according to a leaked draft text.

The secrecy surrounding the talks took another hit this week when Knowledge Ecology International, a Washington-based non-governmental organisation, posted the draft on its website, along with a note stating that the United States was alone among participating governments in opposing the draft’s release.

While the secrecy has steadily eroded, with regularly leaked draft texts and greater support for transparency among the dozen-odd mostly industrialised countries taking part in the talks, the prospective agreement has continued to draw fire for other reasons.

Critics have charged that the terms being considered go well beyond what is necessary to target counterfeiting, and would create new intellectual property protections that surpass existing multilateral rules and upset the carefully constructed balance in the WTO’s agreement on intellectual property. They worry that if an accord entered into force, it could threaten internet freedom, access to technology, and the availability of affordable medicine in poor countries. Read more here.

U.S. Groups Slam Anti-Piracy Accord’s Draft Text

(Reuters/Washington Post)

U.S. digital rights advocates and a computer industry trade group on Wednesday criticized the newly released draft text of an international agreement to toughen penalties for copyright theft.

“Substantively, we remain concerned that this proposal lacks the balance that we find in U.S. copyright law, while attempting to export a regulatory regime that favors big media companies at the expense of consumers and innovators,” Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a digital rights group, said in a statement.

The European Union’s executive branch and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office on Wednesday both posted texts of the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on their websites, years after groups first requested to view the language under negotiation. Read more here.

U.S., Others Agree to Move Ahead on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreements Talks

(World Trade Interactive)

The Obama administration has decided to continue negotiating a new multilateral Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, according to a June 12 announcement from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, having determined that the ACTA “remains an important part of the U.S. trade agenda.” Talks are set to resume in Morocco in July, with a goal of concluding an agreement in 2010.

The ACTA negotiations were launched in October 2007 and participants currently include the U.S., Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland. USTR states that the ACTA is intended to help governments combat more effectively the proliferation of counterfeit and pirated goods that undermines legitimate trade and the sustainable development of the world economy and in some cases contributes to organized crime and exposes consumers to dangerous fake products. Specifically, this agreement aims to increase international cooperation, strengthen the framework of practices that contribute to effective enforcement and strengthen relevant intellectual property rights enforcement measures themselves. Read more here.

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement – Summary of Key Elements Under Discussion

(FAITC)

This paper is intended to clarify the objectives of the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and to summarize the issues under discussion. It gives an overview of the elements suggested under the different headings and highlights the main issues. The paper is available here.