Burberry burns unsold products worth £28.6 million to guard against counterfeiting; is it ethical?
Reportedly, the retailers said that the measure was much needed to prevent illegal counterfeiting by ensuring the supply chain remains intact.
Luxury label Burberry destroyed unsold clothes, accessories, cosmetic products and perfume worth more than £28 million (more than Rs 250 crore) over the past one year. This step was taken to guard the brand’s intellectual property against counterfeiting. As per Guardian‘s report, in a practice understood to be common across the retail industry, the luxury brand burned products including £10.4 million worth of beauty items. Reportedly, the retailers said that the measure was much needed to prevent illegal counterfeiting by ensuring the supply chain remains intact.
However, industry people and social media users are criticising this act and calling out on how the brands have often shown disrespect for its own produce. To understand if this practice is ethical or not, indianexpress.com reached out to financial advisor Safir Anand, who handle designers like Manish Malhotra and Gaurav Gupta.
Burberry burns unsold products worth £28.6 million to guard against counterfeiting; is it ethical?
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Airport bust uncovers 4.5 MILLION cigarettes disguised as toilet paper as accused smuggler faces court over the contraband.
Officers have seized 4.5 million undeclared cigarettes being smuggled into the country and arrested a duel citizen over the bust.
Australian Border Force officers stopped the 43-year-old man for a baggage search at the Melbourne International Airport on Sunday after uncovering a massive haul of smuggled tobacco.
A six day raid in April uncovered three shipping containers at the Melbourne Container Examination Facility and were marked as containing toilet paper, kitchen paper towels and napkins.
After being stopped and checked at the airport the dual national was arrested in connection to the smuggled contraband. Each shipment allegedly contained 1,500,000 undeclared cigarettes which represents a $3.2 million loss of taxation for the Australian government.
Assistant Commissioner Enforcement Command, Sharon Huey said ABF is seeing an increase in the amount of illicit tobacco being seized in Victoria.
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Smugglers hide 10,200 cigarette packs, chewing tobacco in truck carrying sand.
Muscat: Oman Customs busted smugglers attempting to bring in 10,200 packets of illegal cigarettes and 600 kilograms of chewing tobacco into the country by hiding them underneath a load of sand on a truck.
Oman Customs said in its statement: “The Wadi Al Jizi border customs foiled a unique smuggling operation of 10,200 packets of forbidden cigarettes and 600 kilograms of chewing tobacco, where the suspect has professionally hidden them in a truck loaded with sand.”
Smugglers have been caught trying to bring contraband and illegal substances into the country in a variety of techniques, with customs officers arresting an expatriate at Muscat airport earlier this year, who was carrying 8.7 kg of marijuana and 1,285 narcotic tablets that were covered with carbon paper.
http://timesofoman.com/article/136307
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NT$10 million in smuggled tobacco seized in Pingtung.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration (CGA) busted a tobacco smuggling operation in Pingtung County late Monday night and seized NT$10 million (US$333,667) worth of smuggled cigarettes, the CGA said Tuesday.
In a statement, the CGA said officers from its southern office seized 160,000 packs of untaxed cigarettes with a market value of NT$10 million from a Donggang-registered fishing boat called the “Chang Sheng” and arrested five crew members, including the captain.
The CGA, which worked on the case with the Kaohsiung Harbor Police Department, said the busting of the smuggling operation came after a month of effort following up on tip-offs and collecting evidence on the fishing boat’s moves.
Just after the fishing boat arrived in Donggang at around 11 p.m. Monday, CGA officers boarded the vessel and conducted a search that found the 160,000 packs of cigarettes stuffed into 331 big boxes hidden in the lower deck of the boat, the CGA said.
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201805290013.aspx
Lear MoreDRI, Assam Rifles seize 12 kg gold smuggled from Myanmar in Manipur
Department of Revenue Intelligence sleuths and Assam Rifles troopers, in a joint operation on Thursday, seized over 12 kg of gold valued at Rs 3.62 crore in Manipur, said a release.
The raid, conducted on the basis of specific intelligence developed by DRI, unearthed gold from the India-Myanmar border at Moreh.
The joint team stopped two vehicles at Khudengthabi travelling from Moreh towards Imphal for checking, and found gold biscuits hidden inside the front and rear tyre of both cars.
Two persons have been apprehended, the DRI release said. The gold has been seized under the Customs Act.
DRI is the lead agency to combat cross border crime involving smuggling of gold, consumer goods, drugs and narcotics, wild life articles, Fake Indian Currency Notes and counterfeit goods, import-export frauds and trade based money laundering.
Lear MoreFICCI seeks amendment in Form 27 & patent law to facilitate commercialisation of patented product & ease of doing business
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has urged the patent office to amend Form 27 and update Patent Rules in line with international best practices so as to befit emerging technological fields, make commercialization of patented invention more easier and facilitate ease of doing business.
Form 27 needs to be submitted by patentees under Section 146 (2) of The Patents Act, 1970 providing details of commercial working of a patent in India.
Said Dipankar Barkakati, additional director and head – IPR & FICCI CASCADE at FICCI, “Existing Form 27 requirement has become redundant, burdensome, hampers ease of doing business, makes commercialization of patented invention more difficult and is not aligned to international best practices. There is thus an urgent need to remove Section 146 (working statement requirement from statute book). While, such a change in the law may take some time, meanwhile, may we request patent office to consider updating the Patent Rules and amend ‘Form 27’ befitting the emerging technological fields.”
http://www.pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=108375&sid=1
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Uganda loses Sh3bn to illicit cigarette imports
The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) would have netted more than Ush200 billion (about Sh5.46 billion) from the cigarette trade alone but only got Ush74 billion (Sh2 billion) due to a surge in cigarette smuggling last year.
In a media briefing yesterday in Kampala, Mr Vincent Seruma, the URA assistant commissioner public and corporate affairs, said illicit importation of cigarettes occasions serious revenue losses to the exchequer.
“Cigarettes are high value. It enters the country through roguish ways which we are aware of. We have invested significantly in intelligence to break the rackets,” he said.
In the last six months, the URA said it had conducted several interceptions and recovered smuggled goods via the consolidation centre in Kisaasi, a suburb, north east of Kampala.
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Police dismantle tobacco smuggling gang, seize 1.2m cigarettes.
The Portuguese police said they have arrested the leader of a tobacco smuggling gang and seized 1.2 million cigarettes in Porto and Aveiro, both in the north of Portugal.
The leader of the gang has been charged with criminal association and qualified tobacco smuggling.
On Thursday the police seized 130,000 cigarettes and 226 kg of tobacco plus two vehicles. Most of the tobacco has hidden in false compartments in the vehicles that had been specially made to hide the contraband.
The police also said that a total of 10 individuals and two companies had been charged in connection with the smuggling.
Lear MoreTake these steps to stay safe from counterfeit software and fraudulent subscriptions
Software piracy and fraudulent subscriptions are serious, industry-wide problems affecting consumers and organizations around the world.
In 2016, 39 percent of all software installed on computers was not properly licensed, according to asurvey conducted by BSA and The Software Alliance. And each year, tens of thousands of people report to Microsoft that they bought software that they later learned was counterfeit.
What can appear to be a too-good-to-be-true deal for a reputable software program, can in fact be a counterfeit copy or a fraudulent subscription. In many cases, such illegitimate software downloads may also be riddled with malware – including computer viruses, Trojan horses, spyware, or even botware, designed to damage your computer, destroy your data, compromise your security, or steal your identity. And in the world of cloud computing, where many applications are often delivered as a subscription service, consumers could be unwittingly sending payments to cybercriminals, unaware that cybercriminals selling fraudulent subscriptions will not provide needed administrative support.
Curbing the proliferation of software piracy
Cybercriminals are always looking for ways to trick consumers– and the outcome can be costly. According to report released by the Ponemon Institute in 2017, the average cost of cybercrime globally climbed to $11.7M per organization, a staggering 62 percent increase over the last five years. And a recent Juniper Research report, Cybercrime & the Internet of Threats 2017, states that “the estimated cost to the global economy as a result of cybercrime is projected to be $8 trillion by 2022.”
How do cybercriminals deceive consumers? There are many ways. One common technique is to set up a fake website that falsely claims the software subscriptions or copies offered for sale on the site are legitimate. Sophisticated cybercriminals go to great lengths to make their websites look authentic to trick consumers into buying fraudulent subscriptions or counterfeit software.
For decades, through partnerships with industry, governments, and other agencies, Microsoft has been working to fight software counterfeiting and to protect consumers from the dangers posed by this and other types of cybercrime. Today, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU), a unique group of cybercrime-fighting investigators, analysts, and lawyers, works globally to detect and prevent fraud targeting our customers. Our priority is to protect our customers and help create a secure experience for everyone. One of the key ways we do this is to work with law enforcement and other organizations to bring the perpetrators of cybercrime to justice.
Lear MoreCounterfeit Products Trafficking.
Counterfeiting of identification documents, CDs, DVDs, software, medicines, weapons, food products, clothing and cigarettes has grown significantly in recent years, largely due to advances in technology and the ease of movement of these goods around the world. The involvement of organized criminal groups in the production and distribution of counterfeit goods is well documented and they operate across national borders in activities that include the manufacture, export, import and distribution of illicit goods. International, regional and national authorities have uncovered intricate links between this crime and other serious offences, such as the ones dealt with in other sections of this Module.
In June 2010, Italian police arrested 17 Chinese nationals and seven Italian nationals in an investigation into various criminal activities, including money laundering, tax evasion, human trafficking, and the distribution of counterfeit goods. The counterfeit goods were primarily designer clothes produced by Chinese criminal groups in Tuscany. That investigation led to the seizure of 780,000 counterfeit items. (UNODC, 2013).
The making of false legal documents or altering of existing documents is forgery. Forgery is a generic term and it technically encompasses counterfeiting. Nonetheless, these terms are often used interchangeably to describe faked or false documents or products of any kind, and their usage varies internationally. Counterfeiting originally referred specifically to the falsifying of currency, but its usage has expanded to all types of forgeries, which involve manufacturing or trading of a document or product without the permission of the lawful owner of the patent, trademark, copyright, or license.
Corruption and bribery are inherently linked to the illicit trafficking of counterfeit goods, especially when these are shipped internationally. Trafficking in counterfeit goods also offers criminals a complementary source of income and a tool to launder proceeds derived from various crimes. In a similar fashion, proceeds from other crimes have been used by organized criminal groups to finance their counterfeiting businesses. (UNICRI / ICC BASCAP, 2013)
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