Sword Is Going After The Counterfeit Source

"The Way of the Sword is from the beginning difficult to learn.

Like a Dragon or Rainbow it is subtle and mysterious.

Should it be used like a hacking Sabre, 

the immortal Zhang Sanfeng die of laughter."

Photo: Danny Friedmann

Remember the campaign that started in November 2010 and will end until the end of 2011, called Bright Sword (read How bright is Bright Sword here)? Well, the name is made a bit more prosaic: Bright Sword Action and the organisational structure has changed too: "From September 1 to December 31, 2011, nationwide public security organs under the deployment of the Ministry of Public Security will carry out the decisive Sword Action so as to combat IPR infringement and counterfeiting." Read at the site of IPR.gov.cn here.

As of July 2011, the results of the public security organs were according to IPR.gov.cn as follows: 

• The public security organs had solved 17,773 cases valued at 14,050 million yuan;
• arrested 31,392 suspects and identified 4,537 criminals;
• destroyed 13,124 illegal sites;
• dismantled 4,537 criminal gangs.

Although IP Dragon is not a big fan of mass enforcement campaigns that are announced so that the culprits are warned the decision to go after the source is definitely a good development. "In view of the features of counterfeiting, more intensive efforts should be focused on the destruction of the crime source."

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On Counterfeit liquor and wine

People's Republic of China

During the massive IP enforcement campaign “Bright Sword” police cracked down in Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guizhou in 40 cases involving the production and selling of fake alcohol. China Daily wrote: “March 23 to 25, police raided 272 production and sales outlets nationwide and found more than 300 devices used for counterfeiting as well as over 13.5 million pieces of forged packaging materials, such as bottle caps, labels and boxes of well-known brands. Meanwhile, more than 30 tons of bulk wines and 13.5 million fake bottles, caps and labels worth up to 2 billion yuan (US$ 306 million) were also seized by police.” Read here.

Hong Kong
Special Administrative
Region

It is estimated that five percent of all wines in China are counterfeit. Is Chateau Le Tromperie on sale, instead of the label that is on the bottle? According to an article by Alexandra Lages for the Macau Daily Times: “Hong Kong’s expert Simon Tam recently alerted that the HKSAR newly-gained reputation as the wine-trading hub must be protected against fakes in the market. Tam said that the problem is not serious yet, but urged authorities to act fast.”

Macau
Special Administrative
Region

In China, Hong Kong and Macau wine drinking has only recently become en vogue. Thus not everybody has the knowledge yet of what taste a certain wine should have. If it smells like paint remover it is clear, but the difference between a bulk wine and some special wine can be more subtle. And it is well known that it is near impossible to find out before buying some vintage wine whether the bottle is real but its content might be not. There is a luctrative trade in real bottles. As Peter Shadbolt points out Chateau Lafite bottles can fetch 1,500 US dollar on the black market in China. He quotes Fongyee Walker, a Beijing-based wine consultant with Dragon Phoenix Fine Wines. Ms Walker makes it clear that gifting is bad for a brand. Because if someone receives a counterfeit wine as a gift and recognises it as a counterfeit, chances are that he or she in turn will give it to someone as a gift, etc. See here.

(Chateau La Tromperie= Castle The Deception)

Read Ms Lages article here.

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How bright is Bright Sword?

Is the Force with mass campaigns?

Are mass campaigns of intellectual property enforcement mere temporary patchwork, leaving untouched the underlaying problems? Most mass campaigns are still announced with starting date and expiration date. The only thing trademark counterfeiters and copyright pirates need to do is book a holiday and start after the campaign is over, reinvigorated. Now I exaggerate a bit. But mass campaigns are in my view suboptimal and overrated, despite all the impressive statistics, and to be consumed by foreign media tired about reporting on IPR infringement cases in China.

The newest campaign is named Bright Sword. The question is whether it is a bit less typical in that it will continue for quite a long time. It started November 2010 and will continue until the end of 2011. The police seized 14,185 suspects in five months, allegedly involved in over 8,000 cases of IPR infringements, according to the Public Security Ministry.

Zhang Yan and Cai Yin wrote for the China Daily that Bright Swords focuses on eight fields including fake international brands, fake food and drugs, pirated film and television works as well as organised crime. Zhang and Cai wrote in the same article that the police is targeting four activities: agriculture, fake drugs, counterfeit wine and food, as well as fake brands. If the journalists are so unclear about which categories are targeted IPR infringers have a more difficult job finding out if they need to temporarily stop their activities.

Deputy director of the ministry's economic crime investigation department, Gao Feng was quoted saying that of 7,000 production and sales outlets were shut down and that the ministry will focus on the supervision of 340 major cases to ensure thorough investigation and punishment of violators. This information is a bit cryptical: does it mean that out of 8,000 cases just 340 cases are prosecuted?

Read the China Daily article here.

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Another Mass IPR Campaign in China: Groundhog Day All Over Again

China's Ministry of Culture announced that it has launched an IPR campaign that cracks down on counterfeit products and needs to raise awareness about IPR protection. It focuses on karaoke bars, websites, online-games, internet cares, animation and artistic products. Read the Xinhua article via People's Daily Online here. Sounds familiar As you might have already read here or here (chapter 8.3), IP Dragon is not a believer in China's mass campaigns, because:

- they are temporary (although this campaign will be quite long: half a year);

- fight symptoms not the causes;

- the are announced, so that infringers can take this into account.

However, the best part of these massive IPR campaigns were their imaginative names of these massive campaigns, such as "Operation Mountain Hawk", "Sunlight 1, 2 and 3" and my favourite "Blue-Sky". Although you would expect the Ministry of Culture to be in the best position to come up with a great name, they unfortunately called this campaign just generically campaign.

However, if the campaign has some name, please let me know. In the mean time my suggestion is "Groundhog Day All Over Again". If you have a more imaginative name, please let me know.

UPDATE November 15, 2010:

IPR Focus of IPR.gov.cn sent me a document that told me the name of the campaign:

'Special Campaign on Combating IPR Infringement and Manufacture and Sales of Counterfeit and Shoddy Commodities' and elaborated on the campaign: It includes a lot of shoulds for all involved in the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in China. It also gives a schedule of which steps will be taken:

1. Mobilisation period (October 2010): Relevant departments in different regions shall formulate detailed plans to guide implementations. Proposals drafted provincial, municipal and the central administrations shall be submitted to the Leading Group Office of the National Campaign before November 10.

2. Implementation period (November 2010 to February 2011): Relevant authorities shall take action in accordance with the Plan and the respective implementation proposals. The Leading Group Office of the National Campaign will cooperate with other relevant authorities to supervise the implementation progress in different regions. Provincial administration will conduct spot check in local areas.

3. Acceptance inspection period (March 2011): Relevant departments in different regions shall summarise the experience and lessons gained in the special campaign. The Leading Group of the National Campaign will recognise the outstanding performance of the regional departments by granting honorable titles and rewards and later report the process and achievements of the special campaign to China's State Council.

Well at least the makers of the plan are optimistic; they already know that there will be outstanding performances of the regional departments. Then again, who would not perform outstandingly, if there is honourable titles and rewards are at stake... What happened to taking pride in the work you are supposed to do?

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