Paul R. Paradise - Trademark Counterfeiting, Product Piracy, and the Billion Dollar Threat to the U.S. Economy

Cover

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Trademark Counterfeiting, Product Piracy, and the Billion Dollar Threat to the U.S. Economy

Paul R. Paradise

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Paradise, Paul R., 1950
Trademark counterfeiting, product piracy, and the billion dollar
threat to the U.S. economy / Paul R. Paradise.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1567202500 (alk. paper)
1. Intellectual propertyUnited States. 2. Trademark
infringementUnited States. 3. Product counterfeitingUnited
States. 4. Piracy (Copyright)United States. 5. Intellectual
propertyEconomic aspectsUnited States. I. Title.
KF2980.P37 1999
346.730488dc21 9910410

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.

Copyright 1999 by Paul R. Paradise

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 9910410
ISBN: 1567202500

First published in 1999

Quorum Books, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.quorumbooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.481984).

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Every reasonable effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright materials in this book, but in some instances this has proven impossible. The author and publisher will be glad to receive information leading to more complete acknowledgments in subsequent printings of the book and in the meantime extend their apologies for any omissions.

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During 1995 and 1996 the United States nearly imposed trade sanctions on the Peoples Republic of China for the piracy of U.S.-owned copyrights for music, computer software, and motion pictures by the Chinese. Only the signing of an agreement by the Chinese in both years regarding greater protection of intellectual property avoided an all-out trade war.

The trade dispute underscored how serious a problem the counterfeiting of trademarks and the piracy of copyrights and patents had become. Under the old English common law, the crime was called palming off. What the counterfeiter does is to steal the goodwill and brand name recognition inherent in a brand or trademark by attaching a counterfeit brand to his product and palming it off as the genuine article. Stealing the brand is as old as human commerce, but in modern times, the globalization of the economy and advances in technology have led to an explosion in counterfeit products. Prescription pills, automobile and airplane parts, heart pumps, garments, and a multitude of consumer products have been counterfeited and palmed off as the real product.