Anti-Counterfeiting

The Inventa IP Review magazine highlights some of the IP news of the previous year, written by our team, through opinion articles, interviews or press releases. We cover relevant topics that have marked the field of innovation, trademarks, patents or intellectual property rights, mainly in Europe, Africa and Asia.

The 2022 edition shares useful information on the protection of trademarks in different jurisdictions, the entry into the Unitary Patent system and also the impact that may arise from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in the IP field.

In simple terms, a counterfeit is a product that imitates the genuine one and constitutes an infringement of IP rights. This vice is a global concern that denies IP owners their deserved benefits, the result of their resilience, innovation, and financial effort.

Due to its geographical position, bordering Somalia, Uganda, and Tanzania, and its proximity to the Asian sea, Kenya may be deemed as an appealing key distribution point for counterfeit products.

With the technological advance of the internet, increased access to content and information is proportional to the heightened access to content that infringes IP rights.

If it is possible to access entertainment content on a paid streaming service, it is also possible to find on the internet the same movie, music or game on platforms that provide this access sometimes for free and without the proper authorisation. The same occurs with counterfeit clothing and footwear, available for reduced prices. 

EUIPO’s 2022 IP Youth Scoreboard

Inventa offers a compilation of articles, authored by our team, on some relevant topics that marked the field of innovation, trademarks, patents and IP rights, mainly in Africa, Europe and Asia.

The year 2021 has been in the spotlight since the previous year. With expectation, in almost every part of the planet, it was a year to strengthen ambitions and achieve objectives, as we all try to adjust to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The amendments introduced through The Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act Number 18 of 2018, which come into effect in January 2019, have provided significant changes in intellectual property rights (IPRs), as this Act involves amendments in several laws of the Industrial Property Act (2001), the Copyright Act (2001), the Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions Act (2016) and The Anti-Counterfeit Act (2018) (“the ACA Act”).

Today we launch Inventa IP Review, an annual compilation with the main Intellectual Property (IP) topics of the previous year, through opinion articles and relevant announcements.

A year has passed since the COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented disruption in global development. But in some way, it also allowed us to be more resilient and find new routes of communicating.

The path of Intellectual Property was no different.

The production of counterfeit goods is common in the trademark field as it is a business opportunity based on the consumer’s inability to identify second-generation goods.

Laws surrounding this activity include:

Organized by The General Tax Administration (AGT) of Angola and with the cooperation of the World Customs Organization (WCO), last February it took place the workshop on "Techniques for Identifying Counterfeit Products and Risk Analysis" held in Luanda.

Counterfeit products are everywhere nowadays, filing the markets with twin scourges,  often very similar, or even fairly identical to the originals, with almost certainly lower quality but much cheaper, which makes them very understandably more attractive for consumers that have no means to purchase the real deal – the first generation goods.