Asia and the Issue of Counterfeit Products October 4, 2006
Discussion
I. Countries & Products
II. Reasons behind the issue
1) Profitability
2) Demand is strong
3) Penalties are low
4) Good way to launder money
III. Consequences of counterfeit products
1) Lost revenues
2) Tarnished company image
3) Societal Costs
(1) Child Labor
(2) Sweatshops
4) Consumer effects
(1) Fire
(2) Harm, death
5) Lost wages and jobs
6) Criminal Activity
(1) Terrorist funding
(2) Organized Crime
IV. Why is it so difficult to stop?
1) Little cooperation from Government
a. Chinese legal environment
(1) IP laws are very strong in China
(a) Condition to World Trade Organization admittance in 2001
(2) Legal Environment
(a) 200,000 judges to 140,000 lawyers
(b) Judges don't have law background
(c) Judges are selected locally, paid locally, promoted locally, and fired locally
(3) Corruption ? Paying for a decision is very common in Chinese courts.
b. Government
(1) Extensive use of counterfeit products and pirated software
(2) Economic dependency issues
2) &nb ...