Especially Affected Industry Sectors
Many industry sectors around the world have been significantly affected by massive phenomenon of
counterfeiting and piracy lately. The development of technologies enabling simple copying of genuine
products, the development of the internet enabling an instant global distribution of digital contents, as
well as the entire trend of trade globalization, have contributed most significantly to the proportions of
this problem. The counterfeiting and piracy problem has reached a level causing not only significant
financial losses to the manufacturers of genuine products respectively to the intellectual property right
holders but producing also far-reaching social consequences. Counterfeiting and piracy distorts fair
competition among those ones in legitimate business, who invest in the development and marketing,
pay the remunerations to authors and innovators for their work and knowledge, create new workplaces
and pay taxes and other duties, make both profit of their own and contribution to the entire society,
and the ones who make profits illegitimately exclusively for their own account.
It is especially important to bear in mind that final victims of counterfeiting, even piracy, are the very
consumers. When buying counterfeit products, consumers get the goods of poor or at least non-
verified quality, which can expose them to the hazards to their health and their own safety. The prices
of counterfeit products mostly do not correspond to the quality of the products themselves, since they
are formed according to the genuine products manufactured pursuant to prescribed and controlled
quality and safety standards. Purchase of counterfeit products does not provide a customer with the
possibility of filing a claim or indemnification in case of the product’s malfunction, and purchase of
pirated software for example does not entitle a buyer to the related services such as customer support.
Whereas ten years ago counterfeiting affected only some industries mainly, such as industries of
luxury products or clothing, counterfeiting and piracy today affect great many industry sectors.
Counterfeiting and piracy affect especially industries of the following products:
- Medicinal Products and Medical Devices
- Foodstuffs
- Machinery and Spare Parts
- Electric and Electronic Products
- Luxury Products, Clothes and Accessories
- Entertainment Products and Software
- Toys