Fight against counterfeiting

In order to promote the creative capacity of designers and entrepreneurs, the National Association for the Defence of Trademarks (Asociación Nacional para la Defensa de la Marca – ANDEMA), with the support of the Spanish Patents and Trademark Office (OPEM), launched a competition to find the best poster design based on an original slogan relating to the fight against counterfeiting, to be the image for World Anti-Counterfeiting Day on 7 June.

The winning design was displayed on the day together with those of the finalists and other competitors. The display will travel around Spain, with the aim of making people aware of the dangers involved in counterfeiting.

Warning on the danger of violating IP
This action forms part of a set of activities that aim to create awareness about the dangers and damages that can be caused by infringement of IP rights.

They include support for the on-line “I’m original” campaign which aims to create awareness among different types of consumer and to promote a change of mentality among the consumers that are happy to buy counterfeit objects.

This awareness campaign is being carried out through social network profiles: Facebook and Twitter.

Also, in order to ensure the effectiveness of anti-counterfeiting actions, the OEPM and ANDEMA commissioned a study from the Research Department of the Higher Council of Chambers on “Consumer Attitudes to forgeries”.

This study showed that the consumers that buy counterfeit objects are young (aged 18 to 29) and live in large cities with over 500,000 inhabitants. The forged products that are most frequently bought are clothing, perfumery and cosmetics, leather goods and accessories, sports articles and clothing, footwear, clocks and watches, and jewellery. Such goods are usually bought in street markets and from street hawkers.

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