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| Global Fair Alliance against product piracy At fensterbau/frontale 2008, the International Trade Fair Window, Door and Facade in the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg from 2-5 April 2008, four international exhibition organizers signed an agreement on global cooperation. Besides the coordination of exhibition dates and marketing activities, the goals of the Global Fair Alliance include the common fight against counterfeits. Exhibitions as reflections of the market cannot escape the problem of counterfeits, on the contrary. But they also offer a good opportunity to fight product pirates. At the fensterbau/frontale 2008 exhibition in Nuremberg, it was possible with legal support to close the stand of an exhibitor who had exhibited copies of hardware produced by a large international manufacturer based in Germany. The list of violations was extensive: at least two patent infringements, unlawful use of brands and almost complete copies of catalogue pages including the publication of SAP numbers. Companies engaging in such practices now risk far-reaching consequences under the new Global Fair Alliance of leading exhibitions in the window industry: Even if a legal violation is only determined at one of the four events – Fenestration China, fensterbau/frontale, GlassBuild America and Istanbul Window – the company and its products can also be banned from exhibiting at the remaining three, according to local legislation. The worldwide damage caused by product piracy and counterfeits is estimated by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris) at some 150 billion euros per year. But this estimate only includes transnational trade – the actual total value is probably distinctly higher. As published by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology in its monthly report 03/2008, the German customs authority confiscated counterfeits worth some 1.2 billion euros in 2006 – 400 per cent more than the year before. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Construction News :: home page |