The Global Growth of Counterfeit Trade

Product counterfeiting is a well-known problem, one that has been with us for a very long time. Trademarks go back to ancient times and where there are trademarks counterfeiting soon follows. Recently more attention is being paid to fi ghting the problem. It would seem the fi rst logical step would be to determine the size of the counterfeit market. But estimating the extent of this illicit trade is a dif fi cult task. First, no direct measurement of counterfeit trade can be undertaken, since by de fi nition this is an illegal activity. Customs seizures are such a small percentage of overall trade that it is impossible to draw conclusions from these statistics. Many organizations, including the US General Accountability Of fi ce (2010), have attempted to estimate the size of the counterfeit market and have described the major fl aws in every method which tries to put a defi nite size on it. This chapter examines the history of counterfeiting, reviews the challenges of measurement, and describes the products most often counterfeited and the constituencies hurt by the practice. Finally the chapter describes the seven major drivers of the growth in counterfeit trade.