The winners of the twelfth annual Global Anti-Counterfeiting Awards, sponsored by Authentication News™ and the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group (GACG) Network were announced in Paris on June 8 as part of the World Anti-Counterfeiting Day events organised by the Union des Fabricants. The awards are 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’.

 

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 2009.

 

The winner of the Long-Term Achievement Award was Benoit Battistelli, the Director General of INPI and since 2004 Secretary General of the CNAC (Comité National d’Anti-Contrefaçon). He is due to become the President of the European Patent Office later this year.

 

During his term as head of INPI, Battistelli has worked on reinforcing the collaboration between INPI and the French Government through various national cross-agency initiatives and by developing international co-operation such as the Euro-Mediterranean ‘Committee of CNACs’ and bilateral agreements with China, Russia, Vietnam and Brazil. He also worked to tighten the links with the private sector, making sure that the CNAC working groups and events included professional organisations and rights holders. Most recently he was instrumental in the production and signature of the Charter on Cyber-counterfeiting in 2009.

 

The RCMP won the Public Body Award for its role as a driving force in criminal enforcement against counterfeiting in Canada. Dedicated officers have been creative in trying to utilise Canada’s outdated and insufficient criminal provisions addressing counterfeiting and piracy. The RCMP has also been active in educational initiatives including the CACN (Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network) Reality Tour. The RCMP has not only dedicated resources to addressing the problem across Canada but has taken serious initiatives internationally with the Interpol Intellectual Property Crime Action Group and a significant public awareness campaign (posters) that was made available to any other legitimate organisation and has been widely used for the past four years.

 

The Brand Protection Team at Nokia China won the Company Award for recognising the difficulty faced by China’s customs authority in the destruction of counterfeit goods from seizures in an environmentally-friendly manner, and addressing the issue.  After considerable research and internal consultation, the team successfully secured internal approval to include the destruction of seized counterfeit products as part of Nokia’s ongoing recycling programme. This not only produced an environmentally-sound solution to the dilemma but reduced the overall costs associated with such a programme. China Customs not only welcomed the initiative but recognised it as a ‘best practice’ programme and encouraged other multinationals to consider similar programmes.

 

The Association Award was won by the Anti-Counterfeiting Committee of AIM (Association des Industries de Marque an expert and forceful representative of rights owners, especially in Brussels but also nationally and internationally. The committee has carved out a unique and exceptional position of influence in European institutions and thus EU law. Work in 2009 on the promotion of the EU Observatory, with the European Parliament, and the proposed revision of the EU Customs Regulation are clear evidence.

 

Finally, the winner of the Media Award was MCH Group SA, a Swiss company which organises exhibitions and fairs in Basel such as Baselworld – the internationally renowned watch and jewellery exhibition. In order to combat trade in fakes at the exhibitions, MCH introduced 25 years ago an arbitration authority called the Panel. This tribunal of seven experts hears complaints from exhibitors who claim that their intellectual property rights have been violated by another participant and deals which their complaints within 24 hours. Since its creation, the panel has dealt with 800 complaints and the decisions are often referred to outside of the Basel fairs.

 

In addition to the winners in each category, there were three high commendations. They included the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto for an exhibition of fake and forgeries, the International Anti-counterfeiting Coalition – a US-based anti-counterfeiting organisation - for its continuing awareness campaigns and lobbying, and LEEM – the French association of the pharmaceutical industry - also for an awareness campaign.

 

According to John Anderson, Chairman of the GACG network: ‘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 emphases on both co-ordination between the public and private sectors and the importance of raising public awareness that was evident in many of the nominations.’