Michel
Danet
Sheikh
Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum |
Dubai,
U.A.E, 3 - 5 February 2008 -- Top government officials,
business leaders and senior law enforcement authorities
today urged national and international political leaders
to engage in the battle against counterfeiting and piracy.
The call for increased action came at the close of the Fourth
Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy held
in Dubai from 3-5 February 2008. The international event
brought together over 1,200 delegates from 90 countries
and was held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed Bin
Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Ruler of Dubai. The event
was hosted by Dubai Customs and the World Customs Organization
(WCO).
The Fourth Global Congress was organized to enable participants
to identify actions and solutions to the growing problem
of product counterfeiting and piracy. Along with the WCO,
the Congress was convened by the International Criminal
Police Organization (INTERPOL) and the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) with the cooperation of the
world’s business community, represented by the International
Chamber of Commerce (ICC) through its Business Action to
Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP) initiative, the
International Trademark Association (INTA) and the International
Security Management Association (ISMA). It is the first
Congress held away from the European headquarters of WCO,
INTERPOL and WIPO.
More than 50 speakers from 25 countries delivered proposals
for more effectively combating counterfeiting and piracy
around the general themes of: enhanced cooperation and coordination;
improved legislation and enforcement; the need to increase
public and political awareness of counterfeiting and piracy
activities and their associated economic and social harm;
the threat to human health and safety; the need to develop
required legislation and appropriate enforcement measures
to deter and punish traffickers of counterfeit and pirated
goods in free trade zones and transhipment countries; and
the urgent need for concrete and practical solutions to
address the sale of counterfeit and pirated products over
the Internet. These themes will be developed into a series
of key recommendations for specific actions to be released
as the Dubai Declaration at the end of February 2008.
Commenting on the outcome of the Congress, the Director
General of Dubai Customs, Mr. Ahmed Butti Ahmed said that
the Congress had been a great success and represented a
platform from which all concerned stakeholders could work
to achieve security for all. He underlined the importance
of high-level political support in ensuring that progress
was made in the battle against counterfeiting and piracy.
Mr. Michel Danet, Secretary General of the World Customs
Organization and lead co-organizer of this year’s
event, applauded the successful conclusion of the Congress
and highlighted the urgency of dealing with counterfeiting
and piracy around the world. He said that strong political
will and commitment such as that demonstrated by the authorities
of Dubai was essential. He spoke of the need for global
legislation to fight the scourge of counterfeiting and piracy
to enable effective implementation of these laws by police,
customs and judicial authorities. Mr. Danet heralded the
partnership that had been established with the private sector
in the context of the first Global Congress which, he said,
gave an impetus to the debate. The private sector was motivated
not only by their desire to protect their intellectual property
rights, but to safeguard the well-being of consumers, he
said.
Mr. Michael Keplinger, Deputy Director General of the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), underlined the
importance of the Congress as a means of raising political
and public awareness of the scale of the problems of counterfeiting
and piracy. He said that the substantive discussions which
had taken place would be the basis of solid and sound recommendations
around which it would be possible to mobilize broad-based
support for the future work of the Congress. He said that
WIPO would continue its efforts to support the development
of an effective international legal framework to safeguard
the rights of intellectual property owners. He added that
WIPO was committed to continuing its capacity-building initiatives
and training programs to ensure that countries around the
world were better able to tackle this escalating problem.
Mr. John Newton, responsible for the Intellectual Property
crime program of INTERPOL said that counterfeiting and piracy
had infiltrated every market. He said that the industrial
scale of this illicit trade was clear evidence of the involvement
of organized crime, which was a source of great concern
for all. He added that significant results had already been
achieved in regional multi-agency operations which would
provide a platform for further action around the world.
Mr. David Benjamin, Senior Vice President Anti-Piracy for
the Universal Music Group, called for the engagement of
all senior politicians in the battle against counterfeiting
and piracy. He said that counterfeiting and piracy affected
all sectors of the economy where creativity, invention and
innovation were important. He said that more and more of
the gross domestic product (GDP) of all countries was based
on intellectual property. He called for quick action to
deal with this widespread problem which was damaging all
economic sectors. “People are dying, creative communities
are being decimated and our cultural heritage is being strip-mined,”
he said.
Mr. Richard Heath, President-Elect of the International
Trademark Association (INTA) and Vice President of Unilever
PLC, urged the maintenance of the public-private partnership
that characterized the Congress. He spoke of the need to
raise awareness of the problems of counterfeiting and piracy
at the most senior levels both within business and government
circles. He said that it was necessary to further raise
awareness of the problem and to develop evolving legal frameworks
to effectively meet the challenges. He spoke of the widespread
economic and social damage resulting from the illicit trade
in fake products and underlined the need for punishments
to fit the crime.
About the Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting
and Piracy
The Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy
represents a unique, international public-private sector
partnership that is united in its efforts to identify solutions
to the growing menace of the illegal trade in counterfeiting
and piracy and facilitate their implementation. The Congress
has become a leading international forum for shaping practical
strategies to combat counterfeiting and piracy
The Global Congress to Combat Counterfeiting and Piracy
was previously hosted by WIPO in January 2007 in Geneva;
by INTERPOL in 2005 in Lyon, France; and by WCO in 2004
in Brussels. These international gatherings have provided
a valuable forum for representatives from both the public
and private sectors to pool their experience, raise awareness,
enhance cooperation and identify strategies to deal more
effectively with the global problem of counterfeiting and
piracy.
Details of previous meetings and the Fourth Global Congress,
including the program and list of speakers, are available
at www.ccapcongress.net.
For further information, please contact:
Congress Secretariat
Joseph F. Clark
joseph.clark@ccapcongress.net
WCO
Grant BUSBY
WCO Communications Service
grant.busby@wcoomd.org
INTERPOL
Rachael Billington
Interpol Press Office – Lyon: +33 472 44 72 12 or
+33 472 44 71 69
press@interpol.int
WIPO
WIPO Media Relations and Public Affairs
publicinf@wipo.int
INTA
Matthew C. Schmidt
mschmidt@inta.org
ICC
Jeffrey Hardy
jeffrey.hardy@iccwbo.org
Catherine Foster
ICC Press Office – Paris: + 33 1 4953 2822
cfr@iccwbo.org
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