Anti-Counterfeiting Lobby (original) (raw)

2014

Copying is an essential part of the diffusion phase of innovation, a view that was once taken for granted. Now that intellectual property rights have been strengthened and extended to cover the world, it is less acceptable. Rights holders jealously guard their monopolies against piracy and counterfeiting, arguing that strong intellectual property rights (IPR) facilitate not only their own innovation, but also that of the developing world. The pharmaceutical industry is especially strident in advocating an IPR route to innovation, and anxious that those who have trouble regarding information as property see the error of their ways. To this end, it has joined in common purpose with many of the creative industries to lobby governments and the public. The paper investigates their lobbying efforts and finds them curiously clumsy. With such vast resources at its disposal, why does the lobby not do better? Does the lobby aim to obfuscate rather than persuade? The role of copying in innovat...

Counterfeiting of medicines as an infringement of the intellectual property rights

Macedonian Pharmaceutical Bulletin

Counterfeiting and piracy are one of the biggest issues of the global economy in the last two decades, facing all industrial sectors, including pharmaceutical industry. Counterfeiting of medicines is a growing phenomenon affecting all type of medicines including both innovative and generic and represents a serious public health problem and a problem of the trade competition as an intellectual property right infringement. In order to combat this problem, anti-counterfeit regulatory activities are undertaken on a global level through establishment of legislation, strengthening the regulatory activities, development of mechanisms for effective collaboration between the stakeholders on national and international level and communication for raising public awareness regarding the risk of using counterfeited medicines. The role of the pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers in the fight against counterfeited medicines is essential for securing the supply chain and providing...

Values in motion: anti-counterfeiting measures and the securitization of pharmaceutical flows

Journal of Cultural Economy, 2017

The past decade has seen an increase in anti-counterfeiting practices, especially in the pharmaceutical field. These practices aim at reducing the number of bad medicines available on the market, especially in countries where pharmaceutical regulation is still weak. But they have been accused of serving the interests of Big Pharma by reinforcing intellectual property instead of promoting better quality medicines. Based on a study of the controversies provoked by anti-counterfeiting laws and devices, this paper analyses anti-counterfeiting politics and shows: (a) the aim of this mode of government is to discriminate between medicines in order to regulate the value attached to distribution processes and (b) the tensions and contradictions which characterize anti-counterfeiting discourses and practices. As such, a central characteristic of pharmaceutical markets is the shift of value conflicts towards circulation and distribution rather than production. The securitization of pharmaceutical flows, rather than being in addition to the production of pharmaceuticals, emerges as a new disputed way of producing economic value, legality and social legitimacy for globalized technical commodities such as medicines.

Fighting counterfeiting: importance of enforcement of intellectual property rights

Journal of International Commercial Law and Technology, 2014

Counterfeiting has currently been labelled as the crime of the twenty-first century. It has evolved into a much more lucrative business in very sophisticated ways. While there are many contributing factors to the proliferation of counterfeiting in recent years, the only real area where the government can make a difference is in setting up a responsive legal system that includes good enforcement. The aim of this paper is to examine the scale of counterfeiting activity derived from the seizure data issued by the World Customs Organization, emphasizing on the worldwide scenario. This is followed by examination on the motivations behind counterfeiting activity to identify gap in the existing enforcement mechanisms so that recommendations can be made to improve the competency of those mechanisms to address counterfeiting. The paper then critically examines and relates the reasons of why effective enforcement is necessary in the fight against counterfeiting.

Loading...

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.