Globalization of Production and the Spread of Counterfeit Products - Essay Example

Southeast Asia has since developed from a mere supplier of raw materials to an emerging production economy brought about by its export capability (Haggett, 2002).

On a sad note, however, Asia is now emerging to be the single largest producing region for counterfeits and pirated goods. The Internet lent itself handy as a new platform for boosting sales, with considerable assistance from criminal networks and organized crime. The glitter of enormous profit has encouraged more counterfeiters and pirates to join the bandwagon. Moreover, penalties were believed to be relatively light even when the counterfeiting and piracy operations are detected and the perpetrators are brought to justice (OECD, 2007).

This paper discusses the mechanisms which promote the growth of counterfeiting and piracy operations; the existing initiatives and laws in the war against counterfeit and pirated goods with special emphasis on the Southeast Asian region in the light of its new sobriquet as the top manufacturing region for counterfeit and pirated products; and the weaknesses or loopholes of these laws, if any.

An attempt was also made to perform a comparative analysis of the policy failures if any, and successes of coordinated efforts to fight counterfeiting and piracy. Finally, recommendations will be forwarded in light of the inputs from the data analyzed.

2.0     Counterfeiting and piracy defined

The OECD (1998) defined counterfeiting as “an infringement of the legal rights of an owner of intellectual property” (p. 5). This is the broadest essence of the term counterfeiting. To be more specific in this discussion, however, the paper utilized the definitions of counterfeiting and piracy from the context of the TRIPs Agreement, as counterfeit trademark goods and pirated copyright goods, respectively:

Counterfeit trademark goods shall mean any goods, including packaging, bearing without authorization a trademark which is identical to the trademark validly registered in respect of such goods, or which can not be distinguished in its essential aspects from such a trademark.