President Barack Obama’s vow to double US exports over the next five years would create more work for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the primary federal agency charged with protecting US intellectual property rights, ICE chief John Morton told HSToday.us.
In a speech before the Export-Import Bank of the United States on March 11, Obama promised to “double our exports, open up new markets, and level the playing field for American businesses and American workers.”
But as legitimate exports grow, so must the effort to guarantee the safety and security of those exports, acknowledged Morton, the assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in charge of ICE.
For full article, please visit HSToday
Tags: Department of Homeland Security · Intellectual Property Rights · Obama Administration · US Customs
WASHINGTON — The United States is to unveil a new 100 dollar bill in April aimed at foiling counterfeiters, the government said Friday.
The new 100 dollar note “will make its debut” on April 21 in a ceremony at the Treasury Department’s Cash Room, the Treasury said in a statement.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasurer Rosie Rios and Mark Sullivan, head of the US Secret Service, will present the new-look note to the public before it enters circulation.
The 100 dollar bill is the highest-value US denomination in general circulation and is a target for counterfeiters.
For full article, please see AFP
Tags: anti-counterfeiting · counterfeit money · Treasury Department
On the heels of the encouraging news high that the “Hope for Haiti Now” charity album became the first all-digital record to top Billboard’s 200 music sales chart, we’ve also learned that there is a group of P2P users who are uploading and downloading the charity album illegally.
As the “Reaching new lows – charity album piracy” post on James Gannon’s IP, Innovation and Culture blog notes, the album is now widely available on illicit BitTorrent sites like The Pirate Bay, Torrentz and more. The posting highlights a truly ugly side of P2P piracy – the undermining of humanitarian fundraising efforts via online theft of the “Hope for Haiti Now” compilation. So much for the notion that illegal downloading (“sharing”) is an effort to help advance the plight of artists.
For full article, please see RIAA
Tags: BitTorrent · Illegal Downloading · P2P file sharing · P2P piracy · Pirate Bay · RIAA · Torrentz
Internet service providers (ISPs) are warning that secret trade negotiations could weaken their protections against being sued for online copyright theft.
The anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (Acta) is intended to help governments fight counterfeiting and copyright piracy more effectively. The deal is being negotiated in secret between the US, the EU, Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland.
Acta wants to use provisions in the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to weaken ISPs’ position as “mere conduits” or carriers of content, similar to the Post Office or BT. This means ISPs could be sued by copyright holders if pirated content is available via their networks.
For full article, please see ComputerWeekly
Tags: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) · Copyright Infringement · Intellectual Property Rights · Internet Piracy · ISP Protection · US Copyright Office · US Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Last year Norway’s public broadcaster, NRK, filmed a stunning seven-hour train ride between Bergen and Oslo, shot entirely in high-definition video. Over one million Norwegians watched the film on television. But NRK faced a challenge in reaching a larger audience. How could it distribute the hard-drive-busting 246 gigabytes of raw footage to a global audience without bringing its servers to a grinding halt? The broadcaster made a somewhat surprising choice: it turned to BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer (P2P) internet service best known as a means of sharing pirated movies and music.
Some at NRK worried that using a system associated with piracy would generate negative publicity. But BitTorrent itself is value neutral. It is a uniquely efficient distribution method that lets broadcasters “seed” the internet with one or two copies of their massive media files.
For full article, please see The Economist
Tags: BitTorrent · Illegal File-sharing · Internet Piracy · P2P networks · peer-to-peer file sharing
Imitation is supposed to be the sincerest form of flattery, but that is not how most brands see it. On March 1st Philip Morris, a tobacco giant, sued eight American retailers for selling counterfeit versions of its Marlboro cigarettes. Thanks to the rise of the internet and of extended international supply chains, and more recently, to the global economic downturn, counterfeit goods are everywhere. Fake Porsches and Ferraris zoom along the streets of Bangkok. A German bank has discovered an ersatz gold ingot made of tungsten in its reserves, according to a German television channel investigating persistent reports that many of the world’s financial institutions have been similarly hoodwinked. NASA, America’s space agency, has even bought suspect materials.
Counterfeiting “used to be a luxury goods problem”, says Therese Randazzo, who is in charge of protecting intellectual property at America’s customs service. Now people are trying to traffic counterfeit items that have a “wider effect on the economy”, she says, such as pharmaceuticals and computer parts. A new study by America’s Department of Commerce shows that fakes have even infiltrated the army. The number of counterfeit parts in military electronics systems more than doubled between 2005 and 2008, potentially damaging high-tech weapons.
For full article, please visit The Economist
Tags: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) · Counterfeiting · e-commerce · International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC) · Online Brand Protection · OpSec Security
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Coach says it does not want to be left holding the bag for Kmart.
Coach Inc, the maker of leather handbags, briefcases and other accessories, on Thursday accused Kmart Corp in a lawsuit of illegal counterfeiting by selling luggage with a look too similar to a pattern it has trademarked.
Kmart, a unit of Sears Holdings Corp, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
According to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, Kmart allegedly misappropriated Coach’s “op art” design, which features four “C”s arranged in a square.
For full article, please see CNN Money
Tags: coach · Counterfeit Goods · Kmart · Luxury Brands · Trademark Infringement
Edward Dimmler dips a cotton swab in acetone and rubs it on the surface of a computer chip that was ostensibly manufactured by Samsung. The white tip turns black—the first clue that the part may be fake. Dimmler, director of warehouse operations at electronics distributor PCX, then inspects the chip under a microscope and sees the word Samsung smeared across the top of the chip. Clearly, this memory chip is counterfeit, ineligible for resale. Dimmler quarantines it in the bowels of his warehouse on one of the shelves painted red to denote knockoffs of well-known brands, including Intel (INTC), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and NEC. “We now have to question everything,” he says in an interview at PCX headquarters in Huntington Beach, Calif. “A part is considered suspect until we prove otherwise.”
In the past five years, counterfeit computer chips, routers, and other electronic products have “become an epidemic,” says PCX Chief Executive Gil Aouizerat. The number of counterfeit electronic products uncovered in the defense industry alone more than doubled in 2008 to 9,356, from 3,868 in 2005, according to a January 2010 report by the Commerce Dept. Fake gear costs the information technology industry an estimated $100 billion a year, according to the National Electronics Distributors Assn.
For full article, please see BusinessWeek
Tags: Alliance for Gray Market and Counterfeit Abatement · anti-counterfeiting · Brand Protection · Counterfeit Electronics · Gray Market Diversion
The UK film and television industry is to launch a series of anti-piracy ads that spoof classic films such as Jerry Maguire, Reservoir Dogs and The Sixth Sense, one of which can be seen for the first time here.
The nationwide cinema campaign, called “You Make the Movies”, launches tomorrow night and seeks to convince digitally savvy younger viewers that illegal downloading prevents good films from being made. It also aims to thank viewers for supporting film-making and their favorite actors by legally buying DVDs and downloads and going to the movies.
For full article, please see The Guardian
Tags: anti-piracy · Copyright Infringement · Illegal Downloading · Internet Piracy
Recycling used tech gear—a practice generally considered good for the environment—has a far less desirable, unintended consequence. It is contributing to a rise in fake computer chips and other products that make their way into everything from satellites to weapons systems, medical devices, and routers that connect corporate networks. “Electronic waste has turned into an abundance of electronic components and microcircuits for counterfeit parts,” according to a January 2010 report from the U.S. Commerce Dept.
A foremost destination for e-waste and source of resulting counterfeit parts is China, according to reports by the U.S. government and the United Nations. By 2020, electronic waste in China will have reached a level 200% to 400% over that of 2005, according to a UN Environment Programme report released on Feb. 22. That document cites the “alarming and increasing reports on the e-waste situation” in China and other nations.
For full article, please see BusinessWeek
Tags: anti-counterfeiting · Counterfeit Electronics
