INDIAN COUNTERFEITS
various industry leaders and released a note in 2009 entitled Combating Counterfeiting and Grey Markets – A Challenge for Indian Corporates. It recommends:
• Tat brands conduct awareness training and educate customers against piracy and counterfeiting through interactive events, PR and advertising. Consumers need to be made aware of the perils of using counterfeit/ pirated goods
• Stricter laws and heavier punishments for counterfeiters. Laws should be tightened and amended, and courts should be set up for trying IP crimes
• Enforcement agencies must get incentives for their efforts in surveillance of the suspicious use of intellectual property by awarding them a share of benefits
• Tax authorities should also get involved and commence investigation for breach of laws and recovery
• Big consumer associations should be involved and empowered, as well as funded
• Effective anti-counterfeiting programmes should be initiated at the strategic level within
organisations. Industry needs to use more technology to develop trace and track systems. Superficial enforcement actions against the counterfeiters alone are not likely to resolve the problem. Torough investigations, detailed knowledge of local enforcement policies and understanding of the mechanism of the local counterfeit supply chain are essential in stopping counterfeit trade.
Conclusion
India’s IPR laws are strong; however, the scourge of counterfeiting remains epidemic despite tough steps taken by stakeholders, government and industry to curb this illegal activity. Two market participants, consumers and counterfeiters, play key roles in this thriving business, so efforts to tackle this menace need to focus on raising awareness and enforcement.
Anuradha Salhotra is managing partner at Lall Lahiri & Salhotra. She can be contacted at:
salhotra@lls.in
Anuradha Salhotra, managing partner and among the founders of Lall Lahiri & Salhotra, has more than 26 years’ experience of handling all forms of intellectual property rights. She is also an advisor in areas of licensing and technology transfer and prosecution work for both trademarks and copyright. Salhotra has advised several Fortune 500 companies in intellectual property matters, whether contentious or non-contentious. She leads the firm’s litigation department in its most complex IP litigations. She is also one of the founders of the Institute of Intellectual Property Research and Practice. She has delivered several presentations and lectures on intellectual property rights in India and abroad.
www.worldipreview.com
World Intellectual Property Review May/June 2011
39
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