7/16/2009

GACG 10 Year Anniversary & GAC-Awards Stockholm 2008

The Anniversary Dinner in the Grand Hall of the National Museum of Science and Technology. The GACG Network celebrated its 10 year anniversary October 1-3, 2008.

Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group (GACG) Network celebrated its 10 year anniversary October 1-3, 2008.

As the GACG was founded in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1998 and it was initiated and co-founded by the SACG the 10 year anniversary and Annual meeting was held in Sweden. To facilitate easier access for international participants the meeting was held in the Swedish capitol Stockholm. Hosts for the anniversary were SACG, Danish DACG, Norwegian NACG and Finish FACG. About 60 persons from around the world attended the seminars.

After an evening cocktail reception for early arrivers on the 1st, day one began with a so called ”Road Show” where several Scandinavian and international right holders could demonstrate their products and how to detect counterfeits to IPR-practitioners and Customs officers from the Nordic countries. They showed their security details, typical counterfeits and what the officers should look for. After the road show the seminars started.

Opening speaker was Giovanni Kessler, the former Italian High Commissioner in the fight against counterfeiting who spoke of his experiences as High Commissioner and what they accomplished in Italy. He was followed by UNICRI:s Executive Officer Kristiina Kangaspunta who informed of the experiences of UNICRI and gave tips on international organisations fight for IPR.

Next on the program was the legislative perspective and began with Stefan Johansson from the Swedish Ministry of Justice who gave un up-date on legislation in Sweden, the EU and the ACTA negotiations. He was followed by Magistrado Blas Alberto Gonzalez Navarro, judge of the High Mercantile Court of Barcelona, who told the auditorium of the court’s experiences and whether the court had been beneficial for the right holders. Ann-Charlotte Söderlund of SACG continued with a seminar on the concepts of commercial versus private use when considering import of counterfeit goods and how these terms are interpreted in different countries.

Next speaker was Professor Eusebi Nomen from Spain who held a very interesting seminar on how right holders and politicians should communicate to achieve consumer awareness and acceptance for IPR and legislation around it. He was followed by Ken Bonefeld Nielsen, Corporate Anti Counterfeiting Manager for Sony Ericsson who showed a film of how a typical customs matter can lead to major actions against counterfeiters. In this example a customs matter in Denmark lead to police action in Hong Kong. Several of the Danish customs officers who participated in that example attended the seminars.

The seminars of the first day were followed by the Anniversary Dinner in the Grand Hall of the National Museum of Science and Technology. The guests were given a guided tour of the museum’s prize winning exhibition ” Alike/Unique” before they were treated to Laponian inspired courses, all to the delight of the attending guests.

During dinner the GACG GAC-Awards were held and worthy winners received their awards. Awards were given to the following winners: Christophe Zimmerman of the World Customs Organisation; UNICRI; the Spanish Patent Office, Nestlé, Sony Ericsson, Louis Vuitton, Nike (Scandinavia), Indicam, Brand Owners’ Protection Group in Yemen, the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm, and Customs at the airport Roissy CDG in France.

The second day the seminars were resumed and firstly it was the moderator of the day Kristine Madsen of NACG. She introduced the theme of the day – Best Enforcement Practisces – and spoke of some of her experiences from Norway. During the rest of the day she was followed by Wlozimierz Szoszuk of Poland, Hanna-Maija Elo of FACG with senior officer of the Finnish National Board of Customs Anssi Kartila, Trine Kofoed Dancygier head of Danish Customs’ Anti-counterfeiting Task Force with Jakob Krag Nielsen from DACG, who all shared their experiences of how through cooperation with different authorities - especially Customs - can reach greater success than by one self.

Next Year’s meeting is planned to be held in China hosted by the networks Chinese members. We look forward to seeing you then!

Mikael Ludwigs, Executive Administrator GACG
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