Counterfeiters are a huge problem for U.S. businesses. As more companies outsource production to foreign countries, they lose control
Counterfeiting of goods is a huge problem for U.S. businesses. As more companies outsource production to foreign countries, they lose control of their designs, plans, processes, trademarks and copyrights. As I recently noted, China is clearly taking a leisurely approach to enforcing intellectual property protections—it should be no surprise that 66 percent of counterfeit goods seized are from there.
The scale of the problem is enormous
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customers Enforcement, the number of seizures of counterfeit goods increased to nearly 20,000 during 2010 from 14,800 in 2009. Compare these statistics to 2001 when there were roughly 3,000 seizures. The MSRP of the goods seized in 2010 was $1.4 billion. More troubling is the fact that the average value of a seizure dropped from $17,600 to $9,425 from 2009 to 2010. This drop indicates that counterfeiters are changing their tactics to avoid detection and capture. Instead of importing large shipments of counterfeit goods they are opting to send high volumes of smaller packages via express mail and drop shopping. This most likely indicates that the aggregate value of counterfeit goods entering the U.S. is far higher.
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Breakdown by category
Goods seized in 2010 fell into the following categories:
- Footwear: 24 percent
- Consumer electronics: 18 percent
- Apparel: 10 percent
- Handbags, wallets, and backpacks: 8 percent
- Optical media: 7 percent
- Computer and other hardware: 5 percent
- Everything else: 28 percent
The “everything else” category shows some rather troublesome trends as well. Consumer safety and critical technology seizures, included in this category, increased 50 percent. One of the fastest growing areas of counterfeit goods under critical technologies is counterfeit bearings which represent an important component in rotating and stationary machinery. Low quality or defective bearings can lead to serious accidents in consumer, commercial and industrial settings.
Go to the article: How To Protect Yourself From Counterfeiters
