THE BESETO CHALLENGE
Tokyo. Counterfeit goods manufactured in China, seen as the world’s primary supplier of fake products, can reach major cities and millions of consumers at a very fast pace.
The goods often begin their journey in southern China, a manufacturing heartland. Front men or
front companies typically
register the businesses that manufacture the goods, according to Douglas Clark, a barrister in Hong Kong who wrote a report entitled Fighting Counterfeiting in Asia. “This makes it difficult to identify the true players behind a counterfeit operation and make them liable for their infringing acts,” his paper says.
Like many legitimate businesses, the counterfeiters use a ‘just in time’ system. They do not usually keep track of stock. “They only produce according to orders, making it difficult to have large volumes of counterfeit products seized. If stock is kept, it is generally kept separate from manufacturing facilities in a secret location that is leased in the name of
“IN A WORLD WHERE SIZE MATTERS, COUNTERFEITERS REFUSE TO DEAL WITH POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS
UNLESS THEY MAKE A SUBSTANTIAL PURCHASE, AND THEY NEVER PROVIDE SAMPLES.”
parts of the counterfeit products, which are then assembled by a further sub-contractor.”
In a world where size matters, counterfeiters refuse to deal with potential customers unless they make a substantial purchase, and they never provide samples. Clark says this is to avoid detection and it makes it difficult and expensive to confirm whether goods are actually being produced. “Generally, to mount any type of civil or criminal case, it is necessary to have a sample of the product to prove that it is a counterfeit.”
a front company and is difficult to link to the counterfeiter,” Clark says.
“More sophisticated counterfeiters will not produce goods themselves. Instead, they use separate sub-contractors to make different
He says that even if an order is accepted, the main players are rarely involved with delivering the goods. Tis is leſt to sub-contractors and other middle men who oversee the vast distribution channels that stretch across the world. In an attempt to outwit law enforcement officers, the more sophisticated operators mix counterfeit and genuine products—purchased on the ‘grey’ market—and mix them together. “Any person found in possession of mixed products can simply claim that they have been duped.”
30 World Intellectual Property Review September/October 2012
www.worldipreview.com
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