8/5/2009
Global Anti-Counterfeiting Awards 2009
Above picture shows members of the presentation event held in Beijing with two of the main award winners: L-R, Jack Chang, Chairman QBPC; Patrick Wang, QBPC; Ian Lancaster, Reconnaissance International, Joint sponsors of GAC Awards; Individual Special Award winners Li Qunying, Director of IP Division, China Customs and Wang Zhiguang, Director of IP Division, Ministry of Public Security, Economic Crimes Investigation Department; and finally Sam Zhou of QBPC
Four Chinese officials have been termed 'peoples heroes' in the nomination for this years Global Anti-Counterfeiting Awards. The special individual awards for 2008 are made to recognise the work of four people who have worked together as a core team to strengthen China's criminal and border protection. Other awards were made to Richard Heath of Unilever for his long standing commitment to anti-counterfeiting; to Andema, the spanish anti-counterfeiting group, ECE Centres (shopping mall owners from Germany who host anti-counterfeiting exhibitions) and finally Unit D3 of DG Markt at the European Commission.
The winners of the eleventh annual Global Anti-Counterfeiting Awards, sponsored by Authentication News™, published by Reconnaissance International, and the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group (GACG) Network were announced in Paris today as part of the World Anti-Counterfeiting Day events organised by the Union des Fabricants. The awards were made as a continuing recognition of special achievements by organisations that have made contributions to the campaign against the trade in fakes ‘above and beyond the call of duty’.
Counterfeit and pirated goods cost the global economy up to €6 billion according to many experts, and this translates into loss of legal employment, lack of investment in new jobs and increased prices of legal goods. It also means less public funding for services such as health, education and social welfare. Interpol in particular have also noted the specific involvement of major international organised criminal gangs in the trade in fakes. Many organisations and companies are taking effective action against these dangerous and sub-standard goods to protect consumers, promote investment in new jobs and increase government revenues. Some organisations ‘go the extra mile’ and the GAC awards are recognition of this outstanding performance.
The winners and commendations for activities in 2008, announced today, are:
Long-term Achievement
Richard Heath, Unilever
Special Individual Achievement
Deputy Director Gao Feng MPS/ECID, China
Deputy Director Yuan Ming SPP/ISD China
Wang Zhiguang: Director of IP Division, ECID/MPS
Li Qunying: Director of IP Division, Policy & Law
Dept., General Administration of Customs
Public Body
Winner: Unit D3, DG Markt, European Commission
Company
Winner: PriceMinister
Highly Commended: Tommy Hilfiger Brand Protection team
Association
Winner: Asociación Nacional para la Defesa de la Marca -Andema
Highly Commended: Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network
Highly Commended: French Federation of Sports Industries
Media
Winner: ECE Projektmanagement G.m.b.H. & Co. KG
The awards are open to nominations from anyone with an interest in brand protection, anti-counterfeiting, and anti-piracy activities, particularly in the international context, ensuring a wide spread of nominations from across the world. There were strong nominations in all categories this year and competition for the top honours was close. The awards were judged by a panel from Reconnaissance International, the GACG Network, and representatives of the award winners in 2008.
John Anderson, Chairman of the GACG network of national and regional anti-counterfeiting organisations said “The awards this year again highlight the wide range of co-operation that is needed – and provided - by different organisations across the public/private sector divide, in the campaign against the international trade in fakes. I am especially impressed with the emphasis on the importance of raising public awareness that was evident in many of the nominations.”
Ian Lancaster of Reconnaissance International, publisher of Authentication News, said “We are proud to sponsor and participate in the annual GACG awards. The process of nomination, judging and presentation of the awards highlights the challenges of brand protection and IPR enforcement. The projects recognised here all demonstrate the need for a strategic protective approach, which integrates legal mechanisms, authentication solutions, investigation and enforcement”.
Details of Award Winners
The awards presentations were made on 11th June at the Maison de Barreau in Paris at the World Anti-Counterfeiting Day event hosted by the Union des Fabricants. Several of the award winners were present to receive their prizes along with some of the Highly Commended and Commended winners who were present to receive their certificates. The remaining awards will be presented at suitable occasions during the coming weeks.
Long-term Achievement Award: Richard Heath, Vice President Legal and Global Anti-Counterfeiting Counsel at Unilever, now President of the International Trademark Association (INTA), Chairman of the Anti-Counterfeiting Group (UK) Council and Co-Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce ‘BASCAP’ (Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy). Richard has elevated both his own and Unilever’s profile in national and international campaigns. He is specifically and personally responsible for making anti-counterfeiting a top priority for the INTA. For the last ten years or more, Richard and his colleagues at Unilever have demonstrated their utmost conviction to the campaign against the trade in fakes, contributing significantly to many groups, organisations and the work a various IGOs.
Special Individual Achievement: Exceptionally four separate awards to recognise the teamwork that has made a difference in China. Deputy Director General Gao Feng of the Economic Crime Investigation Department of the Ministry of Public Security, Director Wang Zhiguang also of ECID/MPS, Deputy Director Yuan Ming, Criminal Investigation Supervision Department of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and Director Li Qunying of the General administration of Customs.
Public Organisation: Unit D3 DG Markt, European Commission. From a standing start in early 2008, this new unit in the EU Commission’s internal market directorate general has made a big impact on the political scene in relation to counterfeiting and piracy. Most significantly it has announced the set up of an observatory which will radically transform the information and knowledge about the scale of counterfeiting and piracy. Several committed members of the Unit D3 team have raised the profile of the campaign against counterfeiting and piracy in many fora.
Association: By co-incidence marking their 20th Anniversary, the Asociación Nacional Para la Defensa de la Marca – Andema, of Spain have won the association award for a very significant achievement – especially over recent years and culminating in a very successful programme in 2007 – across the range of association activities – legislation lobbying, inter-institutional co-operation, training seminars for customs, police and officials, and, of public and consumer awareness.
Company: PriceMinister - Since 2006 this company has worked with Union des Fabricants and others to improve the protection of intellectual property rights on its web-site. It has co-produced a an exhibition about counterfeiting on the internet named ‘des clics en couacs’ at the Museum of Counterfeiting in Paris and contributed to training and awareness generally. Crucially PriceMinister now claims to detect about 98% of counterfeits before the offers are put on line.
Media: ECE Projekt-Management GmbH & Co KG. The holding company for one of Germany’s major shopping mall proprietors. They have strongly supported the Action group against counterfeiting and piracy in Germany (APM) to organise exhibitions of anti-counterfeiting awareness in about 30 different shopping centres over the two years in Germany. This gives the opportunity to confront 10 million consumers directly with background information about product and brand piracy. The aim is to avoid consumers from willingly buying fakes.
Highly Commended Winners: Highly commended this year include the Tommy Hilfiger company – a consistent and successful anti-counterfeiting campaigning organisation led by Anouk von Meyenfeldt, and two trade associations: The Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network and the French Federation of Sports Industries (FIFAS).
Global Anti-Counterfeiting Awards 2009 Pictures
L-R, Jack Chang, Chairman QBPC; Patrick Wang, QBPC; Ian Lancaster, Reconnaissance International, Joint sponsors of GAC Awards; Li Qunying, Director of IP Division, China Customs; Wang Zhiguang, Director of IP Division, Ministry of Public Security, Economic Crimes Investigation Department; Sam Zhou, QBPC
