GENEVA — Worldwide organized crime syndicates using the latest reproduction technologies are focusing on counterfeiting and piracy, business leaders and enforcement agency chiefs told a global conference.
Criminal networks have “created a systemized means of copying, producing, marketing, transporting and distributing counterfeits that amounts to a second industrial revolution,” said Michel Danet, secretary general of the Brussels-based World Customs Organization.
Anne Gunderlfinger, president of the International Trademark Association, said, “Counterfeiting is now a problem for all industry sectors and businesses of all sizes.”
To illustrate the size of the problem, Gunderlfinger said, “figures based on seizures from 2002 to 2003 at the European Union’s borders showed an 800 percent increase in counterfeits in perfume and cosmetics, and a 200 percent increase in counterfeits in the food, beverage and alcohol industries.”
Globalization and the increased availability of cheap, high-quality reproduction technologies “have made counterfeiting easier and cheaper, while also making it harder to detect,” she said.
Danet told the second global conference on combating counterfeiting and piracy in Lyon, France, this week that “we don’t really know” the size of the problem.
The chief of Interpol, Ronald K. Noble, said transnational criminal gangs “not only manipulate counterfeit and pirated goods to maximize illicit profits, but also trade in many other dangerous illicit commodities.”
Noble said the protection of intellectual property rights “must be given a higher priority by policy makers in government, international organizations and law enforcement agencies.”
Rita Hayes, deputy director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization, said, “While we are still far away from a major breakthrough in the fight against the global problem … there are already important signs for a change in perception and political determination, and readiness for action.”
Hayes, a former U.S. chief textile negotiator, added, “In order to be successful in the global marketplace, all countries, industrialized as well as developing, need to adopt an effective intellectual property policy.”
Rob Portman, U.S. Trade Representative, also put the spotlight on the growing problem Monday in Beijing, and said the U.S. wants to see faster action from China on the enforcement front.
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“China must act vigorously to address intellectual property infringements,” Portman told reporters. “This was raised at every one of my meetings.”
Portman said U.S. firms “suffer huge losses” from intellectual property piracy and counterfeiting, and stressed that President Bush will highlight the issue during his visit to China this week.