The real cost of “faking it”

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We are pleased to see the Australian Broadcasting Company tackle the topic of counterfeiting in its Foreign Correspondent “Faking It” program available on ABC TV and iView.

The television show highlights numerous issues faced by brand owners (including some POF clients) in order to deal with fake items in the UK but also worldwide. These include:

  • The huge scale of the problem as counterfeiting is one of the largest sources of criminal income worldwide.
  • The level of sophistication of the counterfeiters.
  • The links between counterfeiting and organised crime (the proceeds of the sales of fakes have been identified to fund everything from terrorism to human trafficking).

The program also shows the great work undertaken by the Police in Manchester, conducting more than 100 raids through its Operation VULCAN to dismantle counterfeiting activities and underlying organised criminal groups and also the cooperation between the Police and the brand owners who authenticate the goods after raids have been conducted.

In Australia, POF is proud to be at the forefront of the fight against counterfeiting. We have been the exclusive partner of REACT, a leading global anticounterfeiting organisation headquartered in Europe for more than 13 years. We work very closely with Australian Border Force to seize counterfeit goods at the border before they reach the market. This includes training officers on how to recognise genuine from counterfeit goods on behalf of our clients. We also coordinate investigations and purchases of fake items and issue cease and desist letters to counterfeiters. Our expertise includes issuing civil proceedings and organising the destruction of fake products as well.

Discover how POF plays a role in the fight against fake fashion: Anti-counterfeiting – Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick | Patents, Trade Marks & IP Law (pof.com.au)

LLM (Edinburgh University)

Prior to immigrating to Australia, Marine worked in the intellectual property (IP) department of French car manufacturer, Renault, and at a patent and trade marks attorney firm based in Paris. Marine also gained valuable experience in anti-counterfeiting as an in-house lawyer for the French anti-counterfeiting group, Union Des Fabricants (Unifab). There, she represented several member companies in Customs proceedings, and lobbied at the national and international level in favour of better protection of IP rights. Marine participated in working groups such as Interpol Intellectual Property Crime Action Group and Global Anti Counterfeiting Group.