A letter seen by US security guru Brian Krebs invites leaders of high-level internet domain name registrars and registries to the White House to talk about online crime and fraudulent pharmaceutical websites.

A White House Office of Management and Budget spokesperson confirmed to IT PRO that the event was going ahead, but could not provide any more details.

For full article, visit ITPro.co.uk.

Learn more about the industries OpSec Security works with to prevent the sale of fake and counterfeit goods, including pharmaceuticals and consumer packaged goods.

The most recent figures revealed that 73 percent of fake medicines and 16 percent of fake tobacco products came from the UAE, the paper said.

The Dubai Customs, which declined to comment on the latest report, however, pointed out that last year it did not have the legal authority to inspect goods on ships that arrived in its port en route to another destination.

The number of fake medicines arriving via the UAE rose from around 750,000 in 2008 to almost 5.5 million in 2009. David Boublil, a spokesman for the Taxation and Customs Union’s Directorate-General, was quoted by the paper as saying that it is impossible for customs officials to say with certainty where in the world the goods were manufactured before arriving in the UAE.

For full article, visit CentralChronicle.com.

Learn more about the industries OpSec Security works with to prevent the sale of fake and counterfeit goods, including pharmaceuticals and consumer packaged goods.

Packaging materials made up around 2% of the 118m suspected fake items commandeered by customs officials over the year.

Seized labels, tags and stickers that were believed to infringe the EU’s intellectual property laws accounted for a further 15.9m items, or 13% of the total, statistics from the European Commission showed.

For full article, please see Packagingnews.co.uk.

Please visit OpSec Security for anti-counterfeiting and brand protection solutions.

CCTV reported on Sunday that Baidu and other search engines had profited from promoting three websites offering counterfeit drugs that duped more than 3,000 people in China, said the newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party.

For full article, please see Reuters.

Please visit OpSec Security for anti-counterfeiting and brand protection solutions.

The results of the GIA analysis bolster a point that PRA has made many times: strong IP protection promotes innovation. According to the report, “Having realized the need to protect brand integrity and increase sales, brand owners are willing to spend more on anti-counterfeit solutions and the trend is prompting suppliers to offer innovative products that help stretch the inclination further.” Increased innovation leads to better products, more profits, and a stronger economy.

For full article, please see PropertyRightsAlliance.org

Please visit OpSec Security for anti-counterfeiting and brand protection solutions.

Pfizer, whose erectile dysfunction pill Viagra is one of the most copied medicines, once relied on local authorities and criminal courts to hunt down offenders. Now it’s taken matters into its own hands, hiring former U.S. customs officials, FBI agents, Turkish narcotics experts and Hong Kong police to hunt counterfeiters. In China, they’re tracking fakes to the source, raiding derelict warehouses for evidence of illegal drug-making. In the U.K., they’re using civil courts to hit fake pill peddlers where it hurts most.

For full article, please see BusinessWeek.com.

Please visit OpSec Security for anti-counterfeiting and brand protection solutions.

Chinese authorities announced on June 12 that a Chinese-American person with a surname of Ding, along with three accomplices, had been arrested for manufacturing and selling fake anti-cancer drugs valued at US$4.4 million.

The counterfeits were sold through the Internet at one-tenth the price of the genuine products, which average around US$3,000 per bottle. The bogus anti-cancer drugs had been sold throughout at least eight provinces.

For full article, please see The Epoch Times.

Please visit OpSec Security for anti-counterfeiting and brand protection solutions.

“A rogue Internet website marketing drug products may look like a professional and legitimate website, but may actually be an illegal operation,” said Commissioner of Food and Drugs Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D.

For full article, please see FDA.gov.

Please visit OpSec Security for anti-counterfeiting and brand protection solutions.

ACTA would allow customs officers of signatory states to make searches if they believe counterfeit or pirated goods are being brought in, leading to seizures or criminal prosecution.

India, which argued that ACTA would go far beyond the minimum levels of enforcement foreseen in the TRIPS agreement, possibly contravening it, is particularly concerned about the impact on trade in generic drugs.

For full article, please see Reuters.com.

Please visit OpSec Security for anti-counterfeiting and brand protection solutions.

“We have more fakes than real drugs in the market,” said Christophe Zimmermann, the WCO’s anti-counterfeiting and piracy coordinator. “In 2007-2008 alone, it rose 596 percent.”

Fake medicines often contain the wrong or toxic ingredients and pose a growing health threat worldwide, especially in poor countries where drugs are sold to treat conditions such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV.

For full article, please see Reuters.com

Please visit OpSec Security for anti-counterfeiting and brand protection solutions.