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 ake goods account for between three and four per cent of world trade, and cost the EU an estimated 20,000 jobs. They are equally dangerous to Europe's consumers who face health and safety risks from fake products ranging from car parts and kettles to pharmaceuticals.
The MUSYC project(1), funded by the Telematics Applications Programme, involves customs authorities from six EU countries, supported by a number of businesses whose goods have been illegally copied. It promises a much improved success rate in detecting fake goods entering the EU, based on improved information exchange using multimedia systems.
Dangerous
It is not only jobs and legitimate businesses that are undermined by counterfeit goods. Many fake products are dangerous. There is a thriving market in counterfeit car parts, electrical goods and pharmaceutical drugs.
In France, the most common counterfeit products are shoes, representing 21% of confiscated items, followed by clothes, watches, electrical goods, car components, perfumes and leather goods. In Germany, clothes account for 90% of impounded fakes, most of which infringe trademarks, though some breach copyrights or patents.
While some of these products pose a serious threat to the well-being of consumers, others only challenge the health of legitimate companies. Digital technology now allows high-quality audio files to be transmitted over the Internet, making it possible to produce imitation CDs and cassettes of the same quality as the originals. Textile piracy, too, has grown in sophistication as the Internet has made it easier to copy branded goods, leading to rapid counterfeit production of the latest fashions.
Tackling breaches of trademarks and copyrights is a priority of the European Commission, as well as of customs officials in Member States. Commissioner Mario Monti recently presented proposals for simplifying design protection through the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, recognising that copying of designs is a serious problem.
A solution
MUSYC offers a high-technology solution to the threats posed by fake products. Customs officials - initially in France, Germany, Italy and Spain - agreed to share a distributed database on which manufacturers would post information to assist detection of counterfeit goods. They were subsequently joined by customs administrations from Austria and the Netherlands, and negotiations are currently under way to include the United Kingdom, Greece and Portugal.
Manufacturers already committed to supplying information to help detect counterfeit goods include well-known victims such as Nike and Adidas, as well as Mercedes-Benz, which wants to eliminate the trade in illicit replacement car parts. IT systems producer Dr Materna of Germany, Atos and Steria of France, Atos-ODS of Spain, and Sogei of Italy are suppliers and partners to the project.
"The idea came from France and Germany which wanted to set up a consortium to fight back against the counterfeit trade," recalls Dominik Wischermann, the project leader at Dr Materna. "Italy and Spain joined during the project design phase. By last year, we had developed a prototype for customs administrators, and since then the system has been progressively refined to meet their requirements."
It is already clear that the high-quality material which the system offers will help customs officials. "This includes both photos and graphics and written descriptions of counterfeits," explains Wischermann." Useful details are given, such as the colours in which fake products are currently being produced, as well as obvious means of spotting their packaging - spelling mistakes or the omission of logos used on original cartons.
The technology is based on Internet protocols, but uses client-server applications rather than open-access web pages. Secure intranets will link customs officials, giving them shared access to the database. Officials may also use the system to exchange information on counterfeit seizures, which they currently circulate by e-mail, but which could be enhanced by pictures of seized fakes. Manufacturers will use a parallel system, based on the same hardware and software, to submit requests to customs officials to post new information on the site. For obvious security reasons, they will not be given access to the customs officials' site itself. Each member country will maintain its own database.
First performance
MUSYC is still in its developmental phase - but not for long. The project started to roll out a working version in July, and the system should be fully operational in the participating Member States by the end of 1999.
Inflicting serious damage on the counterfeit product industry would be of enormous benefit to legitimate businesses in the EU and to consumers - and for the first time this is now a realistic possibility. All that is needed is for the MUSYC to begin.
(1) Project 31992 - Multimedia Systems for Customs
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TELEMATICS FOR CUSTOMS
