Product Counterfeiting and Criminal Investigations - Term Paper Example

Product Counterfeiting and Criminal Investigations Product counterfeiting has become one of the major problems that criminal investigation has gone into. The modern world has faced an improvement in technology that has helped business organizations make a lot of profit. Technology has helped them to save costs, improve communication and produce quality products that fit customer needs and requirements. Likewise, technology has caused many negative effects, product counterfeiting one among them. Criminals use product counterfeiting aided by technology to steal products developed by other countries, by copying them and selling them to unsuspecting customers. The problem has become remarkably difficult to deal with because the products made through counterfeiting are hard to identify because of the similarity they have with original products. This paper will explore product counterfeiting especially in pharmaceuticals and its impact on criminal investigations. Product counterfeiting with regard to pharmaceuticals have become prevalent in the modern day world. Pharmaceuticals are some of the products that are consumed in large amounts throughout the world. This is because diseases are always existent and require constant supply of medicine and other forms of pharmaceuticals. This does not only focus on human beings but also animals because they are also affected by diseases and other disabling conditions. For examples, in 2006, the FDA communicated to its customers about blood glucose test trips that had been counterfeited and was being sold in several parts of the United States. Counterfeit Drugs and National Security also indicated that in 2010 alone, counterfeit drug sales were sold at more than $70 billion in the whole world. This meant that drug counterfeiting had risen by a strikingly 90 percent figure from 2005 (Peggy Chaudhry, 2009). In the United States of America, trafficking products that have been counterfeited into the country is a serious crime. Pharmaceutical companies have been faced by a serious problem to deal with counterfeiting problems. This is because companies must make sure that they discourage criminals from counterfeiting their products to protect customers from consuming the counterfeited products that could harm their lives. In addition, by discouraging product counterfeiting, the companies defend their brand, and discourage other companies or criminals from producing similar products and cause unnecessary an unhealthy competition (Yu, 2007). However, the biggest problem is that law enforcement agencies do not have enough resources to deal with product counterfeiting. In addition they have many competing priorities because they do not deal with one problem at a time. When criminal referrals of counterfeit products are made to law enforcement bodies a few of the m go through because law of the lack of enough evidence that can incriminate the accused. Therefore, there is the need to equip law enforcement agencies with adequate skills and apparatus that can help them deal with product counterfeiting. The benefits of pursuing a criminal referral in these conditions can improve and maximize the ability of law enforcement bodies to investigate and put on trial those responsible for product counterfeiting (Yu, 2007). Laws that are formulated to address product counterfeiting have been in existence from the Middle Ages when artisans, bakers, craftsmen and guild members had to use unique symbols to differentiate their products from the ones that were made by other people to resemble their own. The anti-counterfeiting laws formulated at this period required that those found guilty of product counterfeiting paid for their crimes in terms of monetary fines. However, there were other more severe laws that sentenced those found guilty of product counterfeits to the cutting off their hands or punishment through hanging. However, the problem that has engulfed the modern day product counterfeiting crimes is that they use high technological innovations that make it very difficult for law enforcement authorities to address the problem. Technological innovations are initiated every day making the fight against product counterfeiting a serious problem to deal with (Paradise, 1999). Over the past two decades, intellectual property owners have experienced a sudden increase in the numbers of product counterfeiting and piracy. This has happened in the domestic and international realms. Today, the numbers of this crime has risen because of the sophisticated economy throughout the world. The ease and widespread access of technological development, for instance as computers, photocopiers, powerful printers and scanners have made it difficult for companies or industries, to escape the product counterfeiting problem. The technological advances have made product counterfeiting easy because the duplication of products can be done fast, accurate and with preciseness. The increase in product counterfeiting has been reflected in a similar manner to problems of intellectual property theft that happens through various media forms. At the start of October 2003, the IACC decided to monitor news databases that are used internationally, on a daily basis so that they could identify media reports on seizures of counterfeit products. Despite the fact that the survey was done informally and unscientifically, it helped the law enforcement bodies to collect and collate information from the media reports with regard to intellectual enforcement activity. This was done on approximately 850 news articles from different countries from all parts of the world (Yu, 2007). Despite the fact that many ways through which companies can prosecute counterfeiting exist, agencies and prosecuting offices in certain jurisdictions may lack the apparatus to pursue counterfeiting crimes than others. These agencies could have limited resources and their own priorities that could affect the decision made on which cases to take. An individual agency has to decide which case has more weight and the ones that require the attention of the agency. They do this by looking at the advantages and disadvantages of giving priority to a particular case. This issue impacts on criminal investigations with regard to product counterfeiting because investigative agencies may give importance to other issues, such as human trafficking or terrorism. When a decision has been reached to pursue a referral case involving pharmaceutical product counterfeits, a pharmaceutical company must compile a referral package to give it to law enforcement bodies. This consists of an investigative report that explains, clearly, the key evidence that shows that a person or an organization has been carrying out product counterfeiting crimes. The pharmaceutical company must ensure that the report has essential documents that include the evidence of the people involved in the transactions, significant witness recordings, evidence of the counterfeits and the possible health and safety risks that the customers can suffer from the counterfeit products. In the process the parties should schedule a meeting for the referral (Peggy Chaudhry, 2009). This will help the company give all the information it has with regard to the crime. In the meeting, the company will discuss with the investigating agency all issues about the case and know about all the procedures. If the law enforcement agency opens a formal case after getting the referral, the company must provide all the support that the case will require, for instance case agents and prosecutors. This affects on the criminal investigations of the case because all the processes and monetary requirements involved in the court procedures may discourage the company from furthering the prosecution. This is because the money required and the processes might be costly for the company in terms of time and cost. Therefore, this is a disadvantage and impairs the criminal investigations of product counterfeiting. According to the United States Of America Department of Commerce, the total loss that companies get out of product counterfeits annually is estimated at 200 billion dollars. Another problem that impairs criminal investigation into product counterfeiting is that first-time criminals are always given a chance to cooperate with law enforcement bodies before they are prosecuted. This means that the criminals are given a leeway to carry out counterfeits. This is because when they are aware that they cannot be charged when they counterfeit products for the first time, they may use this opportunity to sell as much as they can. In addition, it is difficult for law enforcement agencies to know whether the criminals are first time counterfeiters or not. This is because criminals can counterfeit products for a long period of time before they are caught (Dempsey, 2010). Another problem that compound the problem with prosecuting criminals for product counterfeiting consumers collude with criminals to undertake product counterfeiting because the consumers buy the cheaper products produced by the criminals. Therefore, this becomes difficult to legally deal with product counterfeiting because it not only involves the people who do the counterfeit but also the customers who buy the products from them. It is difficult to identify the customers who buy counterfeited goods from those who buy original products (Paradise, 1999). In conclusion, criminal investigations into product counterfeiting are an issue that has a lot of difficulties. Product counterfeiting is different from other cases that are handled by law enforcement agencies because the processes involved in the case are different. Technological advances have also made product counterfeiting a difficult case to handle because the identification of counterfeited products is a difficult task sometimes identifies only by the affected company. In addition, law enforcement agencies lack adequate equipment required to handle product counterfeiting cases because of a multiplicity of priorities and the costs that are required to handle the cases. References Dempsey, J. S. ( 2010). Introduction to Private Security. New York: Cengage Learning. Paradise, P. R. (1999). Trademark counterfeiting, product piracy, and the billion dollar threat to the U.S. economy. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group. Peggy Chaudhry, A. S. (2009). The economics of counterfeit trade: governments, consumers, pirates, and intellectual property rights. New Jersey: Springer. Yu, P. K. (2007). Intellectual property and information wealth: issues and practices in the digital age. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group. Read More