Fighting counterfeiting in India

IFCCI co-organized a webinar IFCCI co-organized a webinar with European Business and Technology Center on “Fighting Counterfeiting in India” on 8th April 2021. The session aimed at addressing issues related to counterfeiting, Brand Protection, IP rights and experience sharing on the same. Ms. Payal S. Kanwar , Director General, IFCCI welcomed all the participants and the speakers for the day. Mr. Poul Jensen, Managing Director , EBTC gave the opening remarks and set the motion for further discussion on the topic.

Mr. Renaud Gaillard, Counsellor for Intellectual Property India & South Asia, Embassy of France in India gave special remarks and highlighted the need for enforcements of rights, coalitions by all stakeholders, holistic approaches to tackle counterfeiting and impacts of counterfeited goods on Government and companies. Ms. Nicoletta Favaretto, Senior Project Manager, India IP SME Helpdesk , Eurochambers gave a presentation on the services of IP SME Helpdesk ( a new initiative by EU, EBTC and other organizations to raise IP awareness and to support and advice EU companies in India) which comprise of trainings, Industry oriented Business missions, practical aspects of IP use and management.

Ms. Rishika Roy, Head Events & membership (North) introduced and welcomed all the panelists. The speakers for the day were:

• Ms. Hana Onderková, Head-IP, European Business and
•  Technology Centre (EBTC)- Moderator
•  Mr. Mayank Vaid, Intellectual Property Director - Asia Pacific & China (Civil), Louis Vuitton
• Mr. Rajiv Chauhan, Executive Vice President-Legal, Pernod Ricard India
• Mr. Ashish Marbaniang, Partner, K&S Partners
• Mr. Manish Biala, Partner, Anand & Anand

The panel discussion commenced with the prevalence of counterfeiting in India and the existing reasons behind it. Lack of awareness and education, tolerance and acceptance of counterfeited goods were identified as some reasons. Next, in context of EU SMEs the steps to secure IP rights in India were briefly explained by Mr. Ashish Marbaniang which comprises of a Trademark search, Internet and Common Law search , ensuring corresponding Brand domain names and domain registrations followed by proper documentation and licensing.

Further deciding enforcement action related factors were explained by Mr. Manish Biala. According to him the enforcement should be a continuous process backed up by concrete intelligence or investigation report. Secondly, IP rights can either be enforced at the custom or incase of local counterfeiting civil or criminal action can be taken up depending upon the target.  Additionally, the mechanisms to look for counterfeits were discussed, Mr. Mayank Vaid underlined the Indian custom enforcement process which allows a complete supply chain investigation on the other hand Mr.Rajiv Chauhan presented a double-edged approach of co-working with enforcement entitites and third-party agencies to identify and track down counterfeits. Furthermore benefits of registering IP rights at customs were pointed out by Mr. Manish, in terms of cost effectivity, information access, seizure etc.

This was followed by sharing of Case studies and experience and an intensive Q&A session and closing remarks by Ms. Aarushi Gautam, Assistant Manager – Events& Membership.

We extend a sincere thanks to EBTC , Anand and Anand, K&S Partners and Eurochamber for their support for this webinar.