Fourth Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy
Combating Counterfeiting Trade Association Become Proactive
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Transcript of Combating Counterfeiting Trade Association Become Proactive
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The Holography Times
Vol. 7, Issue 21
Combating counterfeiting:
Trade associationsbecome proactiveBy C S Jeena
Each and every product from a pencil to aircraft has a trade association
formed with an aim to facilitate the business environment for its member
companies.
Today, in India more than 300 State level industry-trade association exist
representing more than 7,00,000* companies.
While they are playing an important role in modern and global economies,
there are various hindrances which affect their industry / sector growth.
Product counterfeiting is one of them. It is affecting all categories of
products, but the impact is very high in sectors / product categories
like fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), pharmaceuticals, electronics,
automobile, aircraft parts, beverages, etc.
To address this issue, various trade associations have come forward and
are playing a proactive role in curbing this menace. This article highlights
their activities and the role trade association can play in curbing this
menace to a large extent.
* Ministry of Corporate Affairs
Introduction:Brand counterfeiting in India is
not a new phenomenon. Brands
are under attack in various forms
such as counterfeiting,piracy,
duplication, pilfering, tamperingand adulteration of product.
These attempts are nothing but
an attack on the brand and hence
a major risk to the value of the
company.
Brand attack has many ill effects,
the key ones being;
a) Reduces the brand value,
customers conidence,
market share and proitability
of a company.b) The brand attacker, who
supplies a duplicate or
counterfeit product, does not
pay any taxes. It is a loss to
the collection of taxes for
various governments.
c) There are reports in the
press mentioning that proits
from suchil legal activities
are going to terrorists and
banned organisations.
d) Counterfeiting also sometimes
results in the unfortunate lossof human lives.
Risk to the Brand must be
taken with all seriousness
The Government of India is
doing its best in developing
suitable laws, educating police
force and judiciary to deal with
litigation arising out of brand
attack. However, legal process
takes its own time and the
attacks on the brand continue.As brands are amongst the most
valuable assets of companies,
industry association can play a
vital role in providing effective
information and advising proper
anti-counterfeiting strategies to
their members.
Cover Story
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The Holography Times
Vol. 7, Issue 21Cover Story
Importance of industry
association in curbing
counterfeitingAccording to Eef de Ferrante,Director at Active & Intelligent
Packaging Industry Association,
Well, irst off all a trade
association is a medium. A way
to get in contact with companies
in a certain industry. But also
trade associations can advise
their members, and play a role on
behalf of their members towards
governments. The ideal situation
is when membership to anassociation is a guarantee to the
quality and origin of a product.
In that way, associations need to
check and verify memberships.
Big trade associations such
as FICCI, CII and ASSOCHAM
have discussed and taken up
the ight against the menace of
counterfeit at various forums
highlighting the loss to the brand
owner, government, society andto consumers. There have been
seminars and meeting with
government for law enforcement.
These are all useful initiatives,
but, it is now imperative that
the work done so far is taken
up to a new level, keeping mind
the fact, that in this ight there is
also a need to continuously look
for new innovative solutions and
approach by each Brand owner/
company.
Proactive steps
Rather than wait and watch and
then a reactionary step in ighting
the menace, the associations
ought to educate their members
that Prevention is better than
Cure, and they could consider
taking the undernoted proactive
steps to help their membersprotect themselves against the
onslaught of counterfeiting.
1. Educating members about
menace
Association website can play vital
role in educating its members
through their website. For
example, National Electrical
manufacturers Association
(NEMA) , USA has taken the
menace very seriously and
considered anti-counterfeiting
as a matter of public policy and
classiied an special section
on anti-counterfeiting at their
website. http://www.nema.org/
Policy/Anti-Counterfeiting/Pages/
default.aspx. Through this NEMA
have started various services
for its members such as anti-
counterfeiting news, assistance to
members, useful links etc.
In India, FICCI, which is one of
biggest industry associations, is
working on same line and has
recently formed a forum called
Committee Against Smuggling
and Counterfeiting Activities
Destroying Economy (CASCADE)
with an aim to generate awareness
on the impact of these menace
amongst consumers and citizens.
The forum has launched a websitewww.icci-cascade.com (see
igure1) which clariies various
issues on counterfeiting. The
website educates its member
and consumer via industry
news, awareness brochure,
and discussion forum. The
Well, first off all a trade association is a medium. A way to get in contact
with companies in a certain industry. But also trade associations can
advise their members, and play a role on behalf of their members towards
governments. The ideal situation is when membership to an association is
a guarantee to the quality and origin of a product. In that way, associations
need to check and verify memberships.
- Eef de Ferrante
Director at Active & Intelligent Packaging Industry Association
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The Holography Times
Vol. 7, Issue 21Cover Story
website also updates latest
and articles and best practices
adopted by companies around
the world against counterfeiting.
According to Anil Rajput,
Chairman FICCI CASCADE,
Counterfeiting and Smuggling
are increasingly becoming a
hugely lucrative business causing
not only a great loss of revenue
to the industry but also posing
a serious threat to the security
of the nation. As a result huge
amount of investments goes in
dealing with anti- social elements
that is neither good for legitimate
industry, for government nor for
consumers. Efforts to counter this
menace needs highest priority and
calls for robust actions from all
stakeholders.
2. Educating consumersWhile educating the member
companies lies under the
responsibility of trade
association, mass consumers can
be educated in similar with the
help of consumers organisation /
associations.
3. Assistance to members
in adopting authentication
technologies
Today, there are over 100 product
security technologies (holograms,
digital watermarks, DNA taggants,
security inks, serialisation etc.)
used by manufacturer to combat
counterfeiting. Such solutions
can be applied on the primary
or secondary packaging. For
an individual manufacturing
company, it is challenging to
understand the scope and eficacy
of each of these technologies. The
technology has to be understood,
the right features have to be
identiied, the cost of adopting
the solution has to be looked as
also the logistics affecting the
deployment of the solution all
across the markets that the brand
is present in. Trade associationcan provide guidelines to their
members in order to reduce
this burden. For example,
Association such as Organisation
of Pharmaceutical Producers of
India (OPPI) have prepared and
uploaded anti-counterfeiting
Fig1: Screenshot picture of FICCI website
Efforts to counter this
menace needs highest
priority and calls for
robust actions from all
stakeholders
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The Holography Times
Vol. 7, Issue 21
7. ISO Standards
The International Standards
Organisation has recently
introduced a new standard, ISO
12931 titled Performance criteria
for authentication solutions
used to combat counterfeiting of
material goods. This standard
sets out the overall strategya
brand owner should adopt to ight
the menace of counterfeiting.
These days ISO 9001 and ISO
14000 implementation are
widely adopted. Associations
of Industries that are prone to
counterfeiting should take a
lead in helping their members
understand this standard andalso implement this for the
overall beneit of the industry.
As a further initiative, the industry
associations should also build
an environment that respects
intellectual property. Members
should be encouraged to Patent
their innovations so that they are
able to reap the beneits of their
research and development.
In conclusions, it would be
apt to say that an industry
association is formed to serve
the cause of its members at
large and one of the greatest
threats today to any successful
products is the counterfeits and
lookalike products. An industry
association should look within
and decide whether it is doing
all that it can to protect its
members. In case any industry
association feels that it needssome additional information
and advice, the Hologram
Manufacturers Association of
India will be more than happy to
help in their endeavours to ight
counterfeiting. Please feel free to
write to us [email protected].
S.no Name of Trade Association Country Initiative
01. National Electronics Manufacturers Association USA Anti-counterfeiting guidelines issued on their website for(NEMA) members.
02. Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce India Portal launched on sensitising consumers against counterfeiting.and Industries (FICCI)
03. Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India Anti-Counterfeiting guidelines issued on their website forIndia (OPPI) members.
04. Indian Cellular Association India Adopted anauthentication technology on their handsets andeducated the consumers about the same through their websiteand mass media campaigns.
05. Silk Mark Organisation of India India Adopted an authentication technology on the products andeducated the consumers about the same through their websiteand mass media campaigns.
06. Electronic Retailing Association USA Updating member on counterfeiting news.
07. European Semiconductor Industry Association Belgium Awareness against counterfeit products.
08. International Electro technical Commission Switzerland Anti-Counterfeiting guidelines issued at website for members.
09. International Electronic Manufacturing Initiative Global Investigating possible projects related to counterfeit(iNEMI) components.
10. Semi-Conductors Industry Association USA The SIA Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force (ACTF) is working on avariety of fronts to stop counterfeits from entering the marketplace.
11. Counterfeit Intelligence Bureau UK Developed the innovative counterfeiting seizure maps, the liveseizure report, the news archive and the case studydatabase.
Table: Anti-counterfeiting initiative taken by some trade association
Cover Story
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The Holography Times
Vol. 7, Issue 21
Established in 1926, National Electrical Manufacturers Association
(NEMA), headquarter in Arlington, Virginia is world leading association
of electrical equipment manufacturers. Representing more than 450
members the worldwide annual sales of NEMA-scope products exceed
USD 120 billion. Its mission is As the voice for the electrical and
medical imaging industries, NEMA is a pacesetting champion for safety,
innovation, interoperability, environment, and market enhancement
through advocacy, business information, and standards for products,systems, and technologies.
IN 2002, Several NEMA member
companies began to recognize
the growing presence of
counterfeitelectrical products
in markets around the world.
These counterfeit products bear
the unauthorizedtrademark of a
genuine electrical manufacturerand the unauthorized mark of a
certiication or testorganization.
Some of them incorporate
unauthorized, patented technology
of NEMA members.
NEMAs anti-counterfeiting
program helps its member
companies understand and
exercisetheir intellectual property
rights. Because counterfeiting
is a global problem that affectscertiicationmarks as well as
manufacturer brand names and
trademarks, NEMA includes in
its programsuch certiication
organizations as Underwriters
Laboratories and the Canadian
StandardsAssociation. NEMA
secured the participation
of Canadian and Mexican
tradeorganizations representing
electrical manufacturers and
carries on a dialogue withEuropean
counterparts as well.
The NEMA Anti-Counterfeiting
Coalition program has three main
components:
Education and training:
This involves developing best
practices to assist members
in protectingtheir intellectual
property and enforcing their
legal rights, including working
with customs and otherlaw
enforcement authorities. Italso requires networking with
manufacturers and other trade
groupsmutually interested in the
counterfeiting problem.
Documenting and publicizing
the problem:
NEMA prepares reports and press
releases for distribution toinform
the public about counterfeit
electrical products.
Public policy advocacy:
Counterfeiting is an
internationally recognized
crime. It has been documented
that counterfeitelectrical
products present substantial
health and safety concerns.
NEMA is an advocate for greater
publicresources devoted to
combatting this crime, keeping
counterfeit goods out of the
marketplace, improvingcoordinationamong state and
national governments, and
strengthening law enforcement
programs.
For more visit www.nema.org
ighting counterfeiting
Figure : Ad campaign by NEMA
Effective Efforts