BOSTON, May 20, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/
-- International Trademark Association (INTA) President
David Lossignol called on the global
trademark community to attack the worldwide proliferation of
counterfeit products in a big way, by sending the message that
counterfeiting is "socially unacceptable." He also specifically
challenged Association members to proactively educate young
consumers about the dangers of fake goods.
Mr. Lossignol, Head of Trademarks, Domain Names and Copyrights
at Novartis Pharma AG in Switzerland, urged this large-scale
initiative in his remarks yesterday at the Opening Ceremony of
INTA's 2019 Annual Meeting, which is taking place in Boston,
Massachusetts through May 22. The gathering of brand owners and
intellectual property (IP) professionals has drawn a record 11,300+
registrants from more than 150 countries.
After describing how INTA is working to address the production
and supply of counterfeit products, Mr. Lossignol said more needs
to done to address consumer demand for fake goods.
"This is an impossible undertaking if we only address the
supply. It is critical but we must also fight this battle on the
demand side," he said. "This requires us to rethink and reinvent
our approach to counterfeiting. We need to change perceptions and
attitudes toward IP and counterfeit goods."
"We have an opportunity here to make counterfeiting socially
unacceptable on a global scale," Mr. Lossignol declared.
In a major call to action, Mr. Lossignol announced the Unreal
Challenge, a new initiative to support the efforts of INTA's Unreal
Campaign, which educates teens on the importance of trademarks and
brands and the dangers of counterfeit goods. The consumer-awareness
campaign is a committee-run initiative in which INTA members make
educational presentations to students in schools around the
world.
"Today, I am calling on all of you to rise to a challenge: The
Unreal Challenge. Become a volunteer and give a student
presentation," he said.
To reach an even wider audience, he said that INTA has extended
the age group for the Unreal Campaign from 14 to18 year olds to
include those up to 23 years of age, "This creates even more
opportunities for us to engage with students as we can also go into
colleges and universities," he noted.
The expanded reach is a direct outcome of the findings of INTA's
Gen Z Insights: Brands and Counterfeit Products study, which was
released last week. The comprehensive, multi-country research study
takes a deep dive into the behavior of Gen Z—the largest group of
consumers worldwide by 2020—when it comes to their relationship
with brands and attitudes toward counterfeit products.
Among the major findings, 79 percent of the 18 to 23 year olds
surveyed bought counterfeit goods in the year prior to the study,
and 57 percent said they can only afford the fake version of some
brands—with income beating our morals by 10 percent when it comes
to forming opinions about counterfeits.
International trade in counterfeit and pirated goods, including
digital piracy, is expected to skyrocket to as high as $2.81 trillion by 2020, according to study
published in 2017 by INTA and the International Chamber of
Commerce-BASCAP.
About the International Trademark Association (INTA)
The International Trademark Association (INTA) is a global
association of brand owners and professionals dedicated to
supporting trademarks and related intellectual property (IP) to
foster consumer trust, economic growth, and innovation. Members
include more than 7,200 trademark owners, professionals, and
academics from 187 countries, who benefit from the Association's
global trademark resources, policy development, education and
training, and international network. Founded in 1878, INTA is
headquartered in New York City,
with offices in Brussels,
Santiago, Shanghai, Singapore, and Washington, D.C., and representatives in
Geneva and New Delhi. For more information, please visit
http://www.inta.org.
SOURCE International Trademark Association