Together against counterfeiting!
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From December 2020 to September 2022, after months of investigation, French Customs initiated and coordinated one of the largest operations ever conducted at the European level against counterfeiting sold on the Internet, in coordination with Europol, DNRED (National Direction of Intelligence and Customs Investigations) and the German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Czech and British law enforcement agencies.
Result: This operation allowed the seizure or blocking, in these 7 countries, of 16.7 million counterfeit products, mainly toys, and mostly coming from China.
Hundreds of thousands of online buyers have been – most of the time – deceived by the advertisements of these products aimed at the young public (copies of their favorite brands, from cartoons, mangas, video games…); products that are particularly dangerous because they do not respect the safety and other standards in force.
More than fifteen intellectual property rights holders have been co-victims of this trafficking, suffering financial and image damage.
But then, how to act against counterfeiting on the Internet?
As a consumer:
- Think before you buy…. What do you know about the site or the seller? Is the price credible?
- Check the authenticity, quality, and materials of the product you receive, and if in doubt, do not use it.
- Complain to the seller, alert other consumers by sharing your opinion, file a complaint and report to the authorities.
As an intellectual property owner:
- Anticipate by filing an Application for customs action, identifying your products with Customs (valid for France or for the EU), to allow their services to identify entry of suspicious products, similar to yours, which facilitates their interception.
Counterfeiting does not only affect the luxury and fashion industries and it differs from country to country
Counterfeiting adapts to the consumers’ wallets: counterfeit medicines in poor countries or counterfeit car parts in others. All sectors are affected.
| Second hand car parts | Printer ink cartridges | Medical (masks, Covid tests, contact lenses, dental appliances, medications…) |
| Risks: vehicle breakdowns, fatal accidents | Risks: blocking, sometimes definitively of the printer | Direct health risks |
There are ways for intellectual property owners to fight against this scourge:
PREVENTIVE:
- Publish on your website the list of your authorized resellers.
- Warn about counterfeit products in all your communication media, repeat the address of your site.
- Animate your site (communicate, get interviewed, etc…) in order to increase your referencing and to appear in 1st result in the research of the Internet users.
- Apply (if possible) an invisible digital marking or a hologram on your devices and products.
OFFENSIVE:
- Track down sites on the Internet that use your trademark as a keyword to attract Internet users based on your reputation. You can then send a formal notice to the owners of these sites, start a procedure to recover the domain name associated with the site, etc.
- Report infringers on social networks and sales platforms (Le Bon Coin, Alibaba, etc.) to Internet users AND in the dedicated section of the networks and platforms.
assists and advises you in the implementation of measures to protect your intellectual property rights.
– Sylvie BOYER, Paralegal at Mark & Law
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