Talking in today’s Financial Times ACID Council Member Dr Frederick Mostert insists that only by  creating cross border strategies will companies be able to fight the growing challenges of counterfeiting, fakes and knock offs. Globalisation and the internet have been the best friends to those that take the fast track to market by counterfeiting.

Commenting on today’s article, Dids Macdonald, ACID’s CEO said, “Frederick Mostert makes the excellent point that IP is an area where international law is enforceable law but sadly this only applies to large companies who can afford the sort of specialist legal expertise to keep ahead of the game. There are thousands of lone, micro and SME companies who have little chance of playing catch-up with an increasing problem which is crippling them because of a lack of funds and time to pursue.” 

Even with funds to pursue, Dr Mostert says, “With the lightning speed at which perfect copies are churned out in a border less digital world this requires company boards to have a strategy and a smart operational process” and he is right to pitch smart tech with even smarter tech to tackle the problem.

Trade Secrets protection, too, is rippling to the surface as a viable option with many industry bodies and governmental organizations getting together to galvanise cross border protection and the US appear to be leading on this as well as work being carried out by the EUIPO. However, the issue needs more robust Government-led strategy to reduce this threat to growth and job security. Building on the excellent Codes of Practice already in place, working with user platforms and marketplaces is very important. But even more important is the need to ensure a more robust IP framework to identify and remove illegal content/knock-off designs, counterfeit products and to improve track down and take down procedures and protocols. This will require strong influence/incentives on intermediaries and hosting providers to take and be responsible for actions to reduce online infringement to protect all parties.

Establishing relationships with international law enforcement agencies is critical but in the context of the UK it is imperative that Trading Standards Officers across the country, local police and PIPCU, The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit’s work should not be the subject of future cuts but the subject of additional funds and resource to deal with their increasing challenges.”

Read the full FT article here