Counterfeiting is the deliberate use of a false mark that is identical with or substantially indistinguishable from a registered mark.
Counterfeiting steals the identity of trademark owners and robs consumers of any number of things, including comfort, reliability and their personal safety. Some people think of trademark counterfeiting as a “victimless crime” and that copying remains the highest form of flattery. This notion is meritless. The impact of counterfeit goods on trademark owners, consumers and national economies should not be minimized. Today, the level of intellectual property counterfeiting is astronomical. The high levels of trademark counterfeiting in particular reflect consumers’ increased desire for brand name products, the ability of counterfeiters to adapt to trends in the public appetite and the enormous profits that can be made from the sale of counterfeit goods.
View the video created by INTA in cooperation with SpotlightOn to raise public awareness of the social and economic damage caused by counterfeiting.
In the global environment, the sale of counterfeit goods remains a significant issue facing consumers, industry and governments alike. The advent and subsequent rapid development of the Internet has raised the problem to heightened levels as counterfeiters find simplified means and additional channels in the virtual world to promote and sell counterfeit products to consumers.
Counterfeiting is one of the most important issues INTA and its members face, and the Association is a global leader in anticounterfeiting efforts.
INTA believes strongly that nations must work together and exchange information and ideas that will eliminate the threat posed by cheap, fake goods that illegally play on the good name of legitimate trademarks. In doing so, the Association works to ensure security both in an economic sense and with respect to the personal safety of consumers who rely on trademarks as indicators of quality, reliability and safety.
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
INTA strongly supports the negotiations and establishment of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) as an important international framework for stronger, TRIPs-plus enforcement against trademark counterfeiting. Learn more about INTA’s views on ACTA.
World Customs Organization’s model law implementing Section 4 of Part III of TRIPS.
The Association urges all nations to adopt the WCO’s model law, which incorporates special requirements related to border measures and describes the powers that should be given to a national Customs service to help fight counterfeiting and piracy in the context of trademark and copyright violations.
In addition, INTA recommends that governments, judicial authorities and other concerned parties consider measures imposing landlord liability, which would meaningfully disrupt the illegal business of vendors who sell counterfeit goods through leased premises.
European Union
INTA supports European Union initiatives to create a legal framework to harmonize EU anticounterfeiting laws, including the European Commission’s attempt to strengthen remedies available to right holders against counterfeiters by developing and improving customs aspects of IP rights protection.
The Association is also supportive of efforts to prepare a Directive on criminal measures aimed at ensuring the enforcement of intellectual property rights. See the Association's April 2007 press release on the European Parliament’s Adoption of Amendments to the Draft Criminal Sanctions Directive.
United States
Over the years, the Association has supported measures such as the U.S. Trademark Counterfeiting Act of 1984 and the Anti-Counterfeiting Consumer Protection Act of 1996. INTA played a key role in the coalition of IP groups that helped shape the 2006 Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act.
