Post Tagged with: "counterfeiting"

Public Safety and National Security Committee Releases Counterfeiting Report

The Public Safety and National Security Committee has released its report on counterfeiting (I appeared before the committee in the spring).  The report makes 14 recommendations, most of which unsurprisingly track the recommendations from the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network.  These include criminal remedies in the Trademarks Act, inclusion of copyright within […]

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June 18, 2007 Comments are Disabled News

A Similar Plan

Today business and entertainment groups called on a government to address piracy and counterfeiting claiming that "our law enforcement resources are seriously misaligned. If you add up all the various kinds of property crimes in this country, everything from theft, to fraud, to burglary, bank-robbing, all of it, it costs the country $16 billion a year. But intellectual property crime runs to hundreds of billions [of dollars] a year."  The groups unveiled a six-point plan that includes:

  • increasing investigative and enforcement resources;
  • strengthening enforcement of counterfeiting laws at borders;
  • increasing penalties for trafficking in counterfeit and pirated goods;
  • improving federal coordination of IP enforcement efforts;
  • reforming civil and judicial processes to combat organized criminal trafficking; and
  • consumer education.

The country? 

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June 14, 2007 2 comments News

U.S. Pressure on Canadian IP Grows

Following on comments from U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins, U.S. Senators Feinstein and Cornyn, as well as the USTR's Special 301 Report, the U.S. Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus has joined the chorus of criticism against Canada on intellectual property law.  The Caucus released its annual report yesterday and while not yet […]

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May 18, 2007 2 comments News

Yet More Committee Hearings on Counterfeiting

Two Canadian hearings on counterfeiting in one month is apparently not enough.  The Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights last week passed a motion to conduct hearings on counterfeiting and movie camcording.  The Chair of the Committee acknowledged that it would be good to actually see the reports from […]

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May 18, 2007 Comments are Disabled News

The CACN’s Roadmap for Change

Over the next two days, two House of Commons committees will move toward finalizing their recommendations to address Canadian counterfeiting concerns – the Industry Committee will review its recommendations on the counterfeiting issue today, while tomorrow the National Security and Public Safety Committee will review its draft report on counterfeiting.  While I am sure that all the witness comments and submissions will be considered, the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network's Roadmap for Change [pdf] will unquestionably play a key role.  During its appearances before the committees, the CACN representatives touted the document as the prescription to address the counterfeiting issue. 

The Roadmap for Change was not translated at the time of the committee appearance, however, that has presumably now happened and the document has been posted online.  It is generally consistent with the committee appearances – many of the anecdotes and recommendations that were raised before the committees are mentioned here too.  The CACN is seeking a far larger IP enforcement framework with more resources, an IP crime task force, and an IP Coordination Council.  It is also seeking stronger border measures, changes to the proceeds of crime legislation, and the creation of a criminal provisions for trademark counterfeiting as well as for camcording in a movie theatre.

While there is much to take issue with (just about every media release from the past couple of years is crammed into the report), it is the recommendations and omissions that really matter.  I am skeptical about the likely effectiveness of some recommendations (for example, the reliance on stronger border measures is undermined by the GAO study on U.S. border effectiveness), yet several have little downside and will likely make their way into the Committees' reports. There are, however, several recommendations that should be rejected. 

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May 16, 2007 1 comment News