Check these copy-cats - Essuman

The nation needs to initiate massive enforcement on intellectual Property (IP), counterfeiting and piracy in order to stem the menace and encourage innovation and investment in business, Mr. Kofi Essuman, President, Institute of Packaging, Ghana, has said.

“The fight against counterfeits and pirated products must be an interagency concerted effort otherwise criminals will exploit loopholes in the supply and distribution system.

“The fight must include prevention measures by manufacturers, communication and effective education of professionals and consumers, and ensuring that punishments are appropriate to this deadly crime,” he emphasised.

Mr. Essuman made this statement at a one-day workshop organised by the Coalition Against Counterfeit and Illicit Trade (CACIT-Ghana), which forms part of the on-going National Campaign Against Counterfeits and Piracy.

The campaign under the theme “Say No to Fake Goods, Insist on the Original”, is aimed at creating awareness on the impact of counterfeits and pirated goods on health, the economy, job-creation and national development.

It is also targetted at increasing consistency and effectiveness of IP protection in the country and ensuring the progressive and sustained elimination of counterfeits and pirated goods from the market - thereby creating an enabling environment for increased trade and investment, private sector development and strengthening intellectual property regimes.

The programme is supported by the United States Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Programme (CLDP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Mr. Essuman explained that counterfeiting and intellectual property infringement are growing at an alarming rate because this is hardly seen as a crime, and where arrests are made they lack the social stigma associated with many other criminal offences such as robbery and murder. The average consumer is unaware of the fact that counterfeiting poses serious consumer health and safety risks due to the poor quality of products and sometimes hazardous nature of the fakes.

“The counterfeiting and piracy is a drain on the economy, responsible for loss of employment and a reduction in tax revenues for governments.

“The annual cost to the government and industry could amount to millions of dollars, leading to substantial unemployment and revenue losses in the private sector - along with significant tax losses to government.”

Numerous businesses in recent times have been compromised by this black market activity, enforcing closures, depressing profits and undermining their ability to raise capital.

Enforcement officers from the Food and Drugs Board, Police Service, the Customs Excise and Preventive Service and others have carried out a number of raids seizures and destruction of large quantities of a variety of products including drugs, aphrodisiacs, cosmetics, detergents toothpaste, food and beverages, wax-prints, cigarettes, Compact Discs, and Digital Video Displays either found on the market or being smuggled into the country.

He cited that very few lawyers in the country have substantive knowledge of intellectual property criminal law. Similarly, there are few prosecutors who have been trained exclusively in IP criminal law.

As a result, in the few cases where counterfeiters are prosecuted, they typically end up paying minimal fines and serving no jail time. “These nominal fines do little or nothing to deter counterfeiting and the organised criminals engaged in it.

“Ghana as a developing country with weak regulatory regimes is particularly vulnerable to the deluge of counterfeit goods, because enforcement of Intellectual Property and trade mark laws is ineffective,” Mr. Essuman remarked.