Today is the World Anti-Counterfeiting Day. The day on which we recognize the hard work necessary to stop the manufacture, sale and distribution of counterfeit goods worldwide.
The figures speak for themselves.
A very recent report from the European Observatory of the EUIPO on the EU Enforcement of intellectual property rights about the overall results of detentions, shows once again that counterfeiting remains a big issue.
According to this report, counterfeited products would cost the Belgian economy 1,5 billion EUR every year. The commerce of counterfeited products is not only an issue as it destroys thousands of jobs of honest manufacturers and traders and affects the value of trademarks, copyright and patents, but it also provides consumers with lower quality and sometimes even dangerous products.
Luckily, IP right holders are not alone to combat this illicit trade. They can count on the European authorities. Indeed, in the fight against organized crime, the European Council stated a few days ago that the fight against counterfeiting goods is one of the top 10 priorities of the Member States.
In 2020, the Belgian customs at the border seized a record number of goods, namely 1,1 million products. Despite the lockdown, the Belgian police remains also pretty active and took advantage of this calmer period to finalise a number of strategic investigations in order to dismantle several counterfeiting networks operating on the Belgian market and in many other EU countries.
Hence since last year, the Lydian IP team has followed up on such bigger cases.
In such context, we recently pleaded before the Commercial Court of Brussels in order to obtain the immediate destruction of several tons of counterfeited shisha tobacco seized by the Zaventem customs in close collaboration with the German customs. The goods appeared to be made of wood chips. We thus avoided a serious health issue.
Beside hundreds of custom cases where products counterfeiting our clients’ trademarks were seized, we have also assisted and still assist our clients in some more delicate cases relating to the sale of modified original products presented most of the time as genuine items.
If most cases are solved quickly and without judicial procedure, it is sometimes important to obtain a principle decision to curb the ardour of the traffickers. This is still possible when you are cost-efficient and well-organized as our IP team.
Are you facing counterfeiting? Feel free to reach out to us to discuss the best strategy to stop or at least seriously reduce such trade.
