Heading to Cancun Next Week
I am off to Cancun, Mexico to participate in the 5th Global Congress Combating Counterfeiting & Piracy. As many of you may know there have been a series of these meetings over the past 4 or 5 years sponsored by Interpol, the World Customs Organization, the International Trademark Association, and BASCAP, the anticounterfeiting arm of the International Chamber of Commerce. I have to say that, as usual with these things, the agenda looks a bit heavy on the government officials telling us once again about the dangers of counterfeiting. Nevertheless, these meetings are very good for maintaining the presence of the counterfeiting on the top of the agenda of government decision makers. It is also the meetings that take place in the hallways outside of the presentation hall that can be important as well. I will do some posts from Mexico to let you all know how it is going.
The Image Of Revolution?
This is the iconic image of Che Guevara that has become a branding juggernaut all over the world and now appears on everything from posters to underwear. The image is based on a photograph by Albero Korda. Korda never really benefited from the picture, but thousands of merchandisers all over the world are now.
5th Global Congress Combating Counterfeiting And Piracy
See you at the Congress
The 5th Global Congress On Counterfeiting And Piracy will take place in Cancun, Mexico from December 1 – 3. The organizing organization for this Congress is Interpol and there will be a special emphasis on the problems of counterfeiting and piracy in Latin America.
My partner, Jose Werner, and I will be attending the Congress and would like to meet you if you are attending. Contact me at nmontan@dannemann.com.br. See you there.
Image of Che as a leading brand.
The image of the Argentine and Cuban Che Guevara is now a huge marketing brand. Does anyone know who owns the rights to this image? There must be a lot of counterfeiting!
It would be interesting to see if some left-leaning countries, especially in Latin America, would be willing to put some resources against the counterfeiting.
On the other hand, maybe they would say, “let a thousand flowers bloom!”
INTA TO CONTINUE TO MAKE ANTICOUNTERFEITING A PRIORITY
I am just returning to Brazil after attending the International Trademark Association (INTA) Leadership Meeting in Miami Florida. It as a great meeting attended by over 1200 IP lawyers from all over the world. There were a number of very interesting panels, including one with Mei-lan Stark of Fox Entertainment which covered issues around the infringement of trademarks on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
The outgoing President of the INTA is Richard Heath of Unilever, long a central figure in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy. Richard is also very much involved with Business Against Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP), the anticounterfeiting arm of the International Chamber of Commerce.
BASCAP and INTA are sponsors of the upcoming Global Congress in Cancun, Mexico regarding piracy and counterfeiting. I will be there and I hope to see some of you there as well. The dates are December 1-3.
It’s clear to me that the INTA will continue to be a leader in the global fight against the “crime of the 21st century.”
Mandelson sets out action plan on illegal P2P
Internet connections of the UK\’s illegal file-sharers will be blocked from the summer of 2011, Lord Mandelson has revealed. In a speech this week, the UK business secretary said that tough action was required to prevent profits in the creative industries from disappearing. Lord Mandelson has has been a very strong advocate of taking a tough approach to counterfeiting and piracy. I applaud the action of the UK government here.
US Secretary Of State Gives A Strong Speech In China
United States Secretary of Sate, Gary Locke, delivered a strong speech in Guangzhou in Southern China last week, criticising the Chinese and Provincial governments for not doing more to stop counterfeiting and piracy. Locke said that “Chinese enforcement of IP laws is often uneven and penalties are often too mild to act as a deterrent.”
Locke asked the Chinese for three things:
1. Eliminate the overlapping jurisdictions of the different agencies in charge of IP enforcement;
2. Apply the existing IP laws consistently; and
3. Make more frequent use of criminal procedures.
Criminal references are very low in China where most of the enforcement is done through the administrative AIC agencies. The fines that the AISs levy are pretty pathetic in comparison to the money the counterfeiters and pirates make and do not act in any way as a deterrent to future conduct.
One interesting thing is that Locke is a Chinese American, whose family came from a village in the South of China near Guangzhou. One wonders what the Chinese audience thought of Secretary Locke’s speech from this perspective.
Unfortunately, I doubt seriously that this will have much of any effect on the level of enforcement in China, but it’s good to see the USG giving it the old collage try.
Breaking the habit – INTA President Richard Heath on Trademark Counterfeiting
With heightened awareness of the importance of anti-counterfeiting efforts at government level, INTA’s president, Richard Heath, believes it is now time to tackle consumer demand
via Breaking the habit.
IPENFORCEMENT NOW ON TWITTER
We have started a new Twitter Twibe called IPENFORCEMENT as a supplement to this blog. Check it out. I will be heading up to Miami shortly to attend the International Trademark Association’s Leadership Meeting at the Lowe’s hotel in Miami Beach, November 11-16, 2009. If anyone else interested in intellectual property enforcement and anticonterfeitng will also be at the meeting try to find me. I will be staying at the Lowe’s.
Public Awareness And Attitudes Don’t Seem To Be Changing
For all the brouhaha about enforcement of IP Rights (IPR), we always seem to forget about the DEMAND side of the problem, except to give it a lick and a prayer. As I said in my last post, it is clear to me and to any thinking person, that Brand Owners are not spending the kind of money they need to spend if the problem of counterfeiting and piracy is as important as they claim it is.
Nowhere is this lack of commitment more glaring than in ventures to educate the public about the problems and dangers of counterfeiting and piracy. All the data that I have seen recently seems to show that the attitudes of the public toward the CRIMES of counterfeiting and piracy don’t seem to be changing all that much. Much of the public are complicit with these crimes. Accessories to the fact. We need to do more. We need to do a lot more.
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