Intellectual Property Rights: Fiscal Year 2012 Seizure Statistics
Fulltextreports.com quotes this report as saying:
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, DHS and its agencies, CBP and ICE, remained vigilant in their commitment to protect American consumers from intellectual property theft as well as enforce the rights of intellectual property rights holders by expanding their efforts to seize infringing goods, leading to 691 arrests, 423 indictments and 334 prosecutions. Counterfeit and pirated goods pose a serious threat to America’s economic vitality, the health and safety of American consumers, and our critical infrastructure and national security. Through coordinated efforts to interdict infringing merchandise, including joint operations, DHS enforced intellectual property rights while facilitating the secure flow of legitimate trade and travel.
I just feel so…. underwhelmed.
When was the last time you felt frightened by a fake French handbag? Or imitation Italian shoes?
I mean, they may be ugly but so were the originals.
I mention this because tracking data across the various intellectual property enforcement agencies isn’t straight forward.
I found that out while looking into some historical data on copyright enforcement. After the Aaron Swartz tragedy.
The question I want to pursue with topic maps is: Who benefits from these government enforcement efforts?
As far as I can tell now, today, I never have. I bet the same is true for you.
More on gathering the information to make that case anon.
I believe the primary beneficiaries of these enforcement efforts are the companies that manufacture the goods that are being copied, rather than the consumers of the goods. Especially in the case of shoes and handbags.
That said, I ordered some spare power adapters for iOS devices a couple years ago that turned out to be counterfeit. They were slower at charging, plus they made a worrisome high-pitched noise when plugged in. I stopped using them because I was concerned they might be a fire hazard. I also recall an issue with counterfeit toothpaste in the news in recent years that contained diethylene glycol. These are the sorts of things they should be most concerned about intercepting, but it sounds like they’re mostly just really good at finding counterfeit shoes.
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@marijane – Yes, that is the conventional wisdom, that it favors the manufacturers but conventional wisdom isn’t proof.
I think it should be possible to name names, put faces to those so favored under the law.
Could change the rhetoric when the beneficiaries are forced out into the open.
Hard to say until the research is done.