Manufacturers gather to plan war against counterfeiters

Date: 16/11/1995

A CAMPAIGN to stem the ever-growing tide of counterfeit toys on sale across the EU will gather momentum next week at a major conference on the problem.

Toy manufacturers, customs officials and lawyers from around the globe will be in Brussels on 23 November for a major conference designed to come up with new proposals for keeping imitations off toy-shop shelves.

Experts estimate that Europe's toy industry would make 10-12&percent; more profit each year and many new jobs would be created if such piracy were stamped out.

Illegal copying of original toys is eating into the industry's revenues and will soon make it impossible for them to recoup investment costs, they predict.

A new EU anti-counterfeiting regulation came into force in July, making it easier to prosecute pirates caught shipping look-alikes into or out of the Union. It grants customs authorities extra powers to stop suspected counterfeit goods, extends protection to designs, copyright and related rights and applies to exported or transited goods as well as to imported ones.

While most industry representatives say the new rules have helped tackle the problem, they would like member states to do more to enforce them.

“One of the major problems within the EU is the failure of southern European countries such as Greece and Italy to stamp out forgeries. They do not enforce EU law nor do they chase up counterfeiters,” says Sten Petersen of Toy Manufacturers of Europe (TME) and lawyer for major toy manufacturer Lego.

Even when illegal copiers are apprehended, national courts in southern member states often take too long to bring them to justice, according to Petersen.

“The way the courts work, you often have litigations which drag on for not one year, not five years, but for ten years and that is simply not good enough. It discourages a lot of manufacturers from taking legal action,” he says.

“There is no point in having these things on paper if they are not going to be properly enforced.”

Petersen says that until the EU gets its own house in order, it will not be in a position to chastise the behaviour of countries such as China, which accounts for approximately 20&percent; of fake Lego on the world market.

The name of next week's conference, Pirates - don't toy with us, reflects the industry's bullish mood.

It forms part of a massive attack on underground replica producers, an offensive to which it hopes EU policy-makers, border police and customers will sign up.

“Among other things, we hope to educate customs officials to help them identify consignments of counterfeit goods and teach consumers to differentiate between phoney toys and the real thing,” explains TME Secretary-General Peter Verhille.

The association, which is organising the event, says its members spend too much money tracking down counterfeiters. “Toys may look simple but, in fact, a lot of thought and money goes into their design. If we have to spend significant amounts of cash chasing up counterfeiters then we will have less to spend on research and development,” says Verhille.

But more importantly, TME argues that cheap sub-standard clones threaten consumers' health and damage the reputation of respectable manufacturers.

“Kids put things in their mouths. If those toys contain noxious chemicals, for example, then the child could be harmed,” says Verhille.

Because consumers often do not know that the product which they have bought and are unhappy with is a copy,

the original brand loses credibility, according to the industry. “We often receive letters from consumers complaining about what they believe to be our products. When we investigate those complaints, we find out that the product in question is a fake,” says Petersen.

“Things get worse when real Lego gets mixed up with imitation Lego. Children, who do not recognise the difference between the two, get frustrated because the pieces do not fit together and will not have Lego at the top of their next Christmas list.”

The US, the EU and the Far East produce and consume the most of the world's toys. Sixty thousand people work in the manufacturing end of the toy business in the EU.