WIPR survey: Readers agree that counterfeiting will hit $4.2tn
Responding to WIPR’s recent survey, readers have agreed with the International Trademark Association (INTA) that the global impact of counterfeiting and piracy will hit $4.2 trillion by 2022.
However, the report also attracted criticism.
On February 6, INTA and Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy released a report called “The economic impacts of counterfeiting and piracy”.
The report, commissioned by the organisations, analysed the scale of such infringement in order to identify and understand the size of the problem, which is only expected to increase.
According to the report, the global economic value of counterfeiting and piracy could reach $2.3 trillion by 2022.
Taken together with estimates on the wider social and economic problems which could reach an estimated $1.9 trillion by 2022, the negative impacts are projected to drain $4.2 trillion from the economy and put 5.4 million legitimate jobs at risk.
Responding to the survey, 71% of readers agreed with INTA that the scale of counterfeiting and piracy will probably increase.
But one reader said: “All current research that I am aware of that attempts to quantify the impact of piracy and counterfeiting is based on extremely shoddy and misleading methodology.”
They explained that most methodology assumes every counterfeit purchase is a lost purchase of the genuine good.
“This just isn’t true. Most people pirating a movie for free would not pay full price for that movie if they did not pirate it,” said the reader.
They went on to add that someone buying a counterfeit handbag for $50 would probably not have paid $500 for the genuine item if they had not bought the counterfeit.
“Until there is a realistic assessment of the impact of piracy and counterfeiting, the informed public will laugh at ridiculous statements like this,” they concluded.
The report was released at INTA’s 2017 Anticounterfeiting Conference in Hong Kong.
For this week’s survey, WIPR asks: The Texas attorney general has said the Federal Circuit has caused “rampant” forum-shopping and made abusive patent claims more potent. Do you agree?
Clarification: This article was amended on February 13 to make clear that Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy commissioned the report alongside INTA.
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