PROBLEMS

Global Problem

In today’s global marketplace your brand can be attacked from almost anywhere in the world. Counterfeiting and piracy has a $900 billion impact on the global economy. For example:

  • U.S. Chamber of Commerce: “Counterfeiting and piracy cost the U.S. economy between $200-$250 billion per year, a total of 750,000 American jobs, and pose a real threat to consumer health and safety.”1

  • Federal Trade Commission: “…the auto industry could hire 250,000 additional workers, if the sale of counterfeit auto parts was eliminated.”2

  • And perhaps more alarming, the sale of counterfeit products is a major source of revenue for international terrorists and organized crime. For example, Al-Qaeda raises money by selling fake goods.3 In fact, the U.S. News & World Report stated that, “a counterfeit T-shirt ring… helped pay for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.”4

  • US Chamber of Commerce, again: “In the last month it is almost guaranteed that you unknowingly bought a counterfeit good. Criminal networks abroad, organized crime, even terrorists, have infiltrated supply chains. Counterfeit and pirated goods are in legitimate retail outlets. It’s everyday products bought in everyday stores: batteries, software, over-the-counter and prescription drugs, spark plugs, car brakes, airplane parts, golf clubs, baby cribs, cell phones, and whiskey to name a few.”5

  1. http://www.uschamber.com/problems/index/counterfeiting/default
  2. “Legislators Detail Concerns About Counterfeit Goods from China — Theft of intellectual property has significant impact on revenue, jobs,” State Department Press Releases and Documents, June 12, 2006.
  3. Interpol.
  4. U.S. News & World Report, July 14, 2003.
  5. U.S. Chamber of Commerce Video: “Counterfeiting & Piracy – The Threat to American Workers is Real” www.TheTrueCosts.org.