Chapter 357: Anti-Counterfeiting Issues

In the mid-1900s, counterfeiting was rampant in China's consumer goods market, and businesses were resorting to extreme measures. The difference in product quality and commercial credit was staggering.

Last year, the government promulgated the "Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law". Article 49 of it is that if someone engages in fraudulent activities in providing goods or services, he or she shall be compensated for the losses suffered in accordance with the requirements of consumption. The amount of increased compensation shall be Double the price of goods purchased or services received.

In the previous civil law, the best result for consumers who bought fake goods was to return them at the price, but now they can double the compensation, which can be regarded as a huge progress in policy.

The production and sale of counterfeit and substandard goods for the purpose of illegal profit, in violation of national laws and regulations, and infringement of other people's intellectual property rights is an act of manufacturing and selling counterfeit goods. In order to promote social progress, intellectual property rights must be protected and counterfeiting must be severely cracked down on. The entire process of cracking down on and punishing such illegal activities is collectively called anti-counterfeiting.

The existence of counterfeiting is due to the inducement of huge profits, loopholes in the legal system, government inaction, corporate weakness, consumption trends and other reasons. The solution to the problem of counterfeiting and counterfeiting is for enterprises to strengthen technological research and development, improve product competitiveness, and allow consumers to improve their awareness of intellectual property protection and their ability to identify counterfeit products, create public opinion, and unite all social forces to combat counterfeiting and counterfeiting. crack down severely.

Human society has been fighting against the illegal production and sale of counterfeit and shoddy goods for more than one or two hundred years, and it has not stopped yet. As early as the 1870s, after the Industrial Revolution in Europe, the industry was in a period of rapid development, and counterfeit and shoddy goods were rampant.

For example, in the UK, unscrupulous businessmen pursue profits by any means in order to make money and get rich quickly. Food is adulterated with clay, tea leaves are adulterated with yellow vitex leaves, and medicines are put on the market without testing and identification, etc. These phenomena forced the British government to take various measures such as legislation, administration, and education. It took about twenty years to bring the proliferation of counterfeit and shoddy goods under control.

Another example is France, a country with famous brands, but also a country that has been plagued by counterfeit and shoddy goods to this day. Currently, there are four organizations in France engaged in anti-counterfeiting work. The first is the industry association, which was established by famous brand product manufacturers. One of its important functions is to use information networks to cooperate with the government to combat counterfeiting. The second is a government agency, namely the General Administration of Consumer Affairs and Anti-Fraud.

The third is the French gendarme and police agencies. The law gives them the function of combating counterfeiting. The fourth is that as for French customs, as long as the goods are currently in question, the customs can detain the goods. Once the goods are confirmed to be counterfeit and shoddy, they can exercise the right to impose penalties.

What is counterfeiting? There is no precise international definition, and the definitions given by the United Kingdom, France, and Germany are all consistent. The World Trade Organization, in its documents on trade intellectual property protection, focuses on defining trademark, copyright, and patent infringement. In reality, counterfeiting is much broader.

There is a more accepted definition internationally. Counterfeiting refers to a very realistic imitation of the appearance of a product.

This makes consumers and users mistakenly believe that the product is their product. Without authorization, permission or approval. Copy and sell products protected by intellectual property rights. The object of copying is usually the trademark, packaging, label or other important characteristics of the product.

The World Trade Organization said. The objects protected by intellectual property rights are not limited to trademarks, patents, copyrights, etc. Countries can determine the content of some areas that need protection according to their own needs. For example, other important characteristics related to product identification can also be protected as needed. These important characteristics include origin. Labels, certifications, production licenses and other quality marks as well as factory names and addresses, etc.

The main reason why counterfeit and shoddy goods continue to be banned is that there are huge profits to be made from counterfeiting. More profitable than smuggling drugs and arms. And the risk is relatively small. It is a high-profit and low-risk real estate industry. According to information provided by the World Trade Organization. From 1990 to 1995. Global trade increased by 47 percent. During the same period, the trade volume of counterfeit goods increased by 150%.

Many countries have inadequate laws to combat counterfeiting or protect intellectual property rights. Except for a few bad things. Generally speaking, counterfeiting is a low-level and harmless crime. Often placed in a secondary position by the law. And eliminate and reduce trade barriers between international trade. It also gives opportunities for counterfeit goods to take advantage.

It was 1992. The domestic government has organized relevant departments to launch a large-scale joint anti-counterfeiting campaign. And the results are outstanding. Achieved good success. In 1993, a national anti-counterfeiting office was established. Promoted the organized and led anti-counterfeiting work across the country.

However, the work efficiency of these departments is very disappointing. The key issue is also local protectionism.

In order to complete the primitive accumulation of the local economy, some local chief executives and law enforcement departments secretly support smuggling and counterfeiting, becoming a hotbed of gray economy. Of course, the local economy will also show some temporary prosperity as a result.

This demonstration effect will encourage other regions to follow suit. Under this situation, it is difficult for an official to rely on fair mechanisms and sustainable development principles to achieve local economic development.

For example, the economic pillar of a district in Guangzhou is mainly small-scale production of electrical appliances by individuals and private individuals. In a sense, the local economy of this area is essentially a gray economy. For the sake of GDP and political achievements, local leaders and government departments use the excuse of developing local economic pillars to carry out local protection. When the central media exposed it with real evidence, the relevant government departments of this area not only published articles to distort the facts, but also organized fake photos of people holding their right hands under the sign of the city's private enterprise association and published them everywhere.

In its letter of commitment, there are still a considerable amount of infringement and counterfeiting of other people's trademark rights. The legal enterprise promoted at the press conference hosted by the local government turned out to be the largest counterfeiting enterprise in the local area. The qualified enterprise announced to reporters at the press conference was still producing and selling infringing products the next day.

After the problems in this area were exposed and investigated, many new infringing enterprises of the same type were still approved for registration in surrounding areas. Their arrogance has reached the level of lawlessness. Although two deputy mayors in charge of the economy have been punished by law for economic crimes, the illegal economy supported by the local government and the interest groups formed by it have not been investigated more extensively and deeply.

Most of the large-scale markets dominated by individual private enterprises have the background of government investment. In order to recover the investment as soon as possible, some local governments even give ordinary civil servants the task indicators of attracting investment. Under this situation, market access and supervision become formalities. In addition, the tax package system is implemented, and cash transactions are the main method. These markets have become a paradise for illegal crimes such as smuggling, counterfeiting, trademark infringement, money laundering, and tax evasion.

In short, driven by interests, officials collude with counterfeiting enterprises, which has caused great trouble to the normal economic order.

At present, the counterfeited enterprises under Fan Investment Group are no longer limited to low-voltage electrical appliances and ham sausage products. Now there are various other electronic products. Even personal computers produced by SS have counterfeits popular in the market.

Fan Wubing is somewhat worried about this. Although he is not worried that the company will collapse, the increasingly serious counterfeiting in the country really makes him very unhappy. This will cause a large number of excellent companies to be defeated by counterfeit goods.

Take the liquor industry in Shanxi as an example. It was originally a very mature and stable industry. However, after foreigners began to use industrial alcohol blending in Shanxi, the entire market order was completely messed up. Not only did the established market suffer a devastating blow, but also consumers' confidence in Shanxi liquor was greatly reduced.

Not to mention others, after the news of several deaths caused by fake liquor was exposed, Fan Wubing, who originally liked to drink Fenjiu, could only let the employees of the Shanxi branch go to the winery to pick up the goods in person, and he dared to drink such liquor.

For ordinary consumers, they are naturally facing this huge confusion.

Fan Wubing thought about it and realized that the high-end products of his company were easier to fight against counterfeiting. By opening a voice service phone and combining the anti-counterfeiting code of the goods sold, it was easy to help consumers identify the authenticity of the goods. With the help of his company's perfect consumer and management network, the company's high-end products could be fully entered into the company's computer database for record within the day of sale.

However, for low-end products, this is not feasible, as it would cause a sudden increase in costs and the products would not be sold.

For simple food products such as ham sausages, which have low production barriers and low input costs, it is difficult to solve the problem of counterfeiting.

Fan Wubing discussed this issue with his executives, and everyone agreed that the reason why counterfeit and shoddy products are now intensively appearing in the market is because the cost of counterfeiting is very low.

Although the Consumer Rights Protection Law stipulates that buying fake goods can get double compensation, it is not so easy in practice. The price that consumers pay to prove that a product is fake is often much higher than the value of the product itself. For this reason, few people are serious about this issue, but just think they are unlucky.

"We have to make laser anti-counterfeiting marks! And some other low-cost and high-tech anti-counterfeiting methods!" Fan Wubing instructed his subordinates.

Since it is difficult to solve it with administrative means, we can only resort to technical means.

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