Asia IP

Following a May 2014 meeting in Hong Kong timed to coincide with the annual meeting of the International Trademark Association (INTA), the Asian Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy (ACACAP) has been launched with the goal of international brands combining forces to fight product counterfeiting and copyright piracy in Asia.

ACACAP, a not-for-profit entity based in Singapore, is the brainchild of Ingo Dauer, the Geneva-based group legal director at L’Occitane, and Bharat Dube, chairman and CEO of Singapore-based Strategic IP Information (www.sipi-ip. com) and Brandstock Enforcement.

“Brands have big issues vis-à-vis internet sales,” Dauer tells Asia IP. “You can’t tackle all of those problems alone. You need the combined power of many brands to go against the counterfeiters on internet and cooperation with online retail sites such as eBay and Taobao will be needed.”

Dauer told a group of 30 lawyers, mostly senior in-house counsels, attending the group’s launch in Hong Kong that the coalition seeks to represent all kinds of consumer products brands, and not just fashion or cosmetic brands. “We’re open to all kinds of members with commercial interests in Asia,” he said in May. Dauer estimates the group needs at least 10 members to work, and aims for 50 within two years of launch.

Singapore is a natural location for the group’s headquarters, he says. “More and more brands are opting to set up in Singapore, and setting up there shows our dedication to fighting counterfeiting in the entire region, rather just in China.”

Dube says ACACAP isn’t merely going down the path traveled by other country-, region- and internationalbased coalitions. “There are many laudable groups that do a good job raising awareness of the problems that go along with counterfeiting,” he says. “The difference we are trying to make with ACACAP is to have something that is more action-oriented. Fakes are everywhere, and everything can be faked. Counterfeiting today is outof- control and the problem is Asiafocused. We hope to make a difference through collective action.”

Consumer products companies find it expensive to undertake raids and other enforcement actions on their own, Dauer says. “Having different companies from different fields all working together will allow us to not only share expertise, but also coordinate enforcement. We know of no precedence to what we are doing.”

Much of the group’s efforts are expected to be against online sales of counterfeits. Dube told the Hong Kong gathering that the internet “is facilitating the globalization of fakes,” noting that “many companies continue to fight the problem on their own.”

Simon Jim, the Hong Kong-based director for brand protection, Asia- Pacific, at Burberry, and a member of Asia IP’s editorial board, said at the launch event that he sees great potential for such efforts by ACACAP. “[It would be exciting to be a] member of a group which acts to enforce its members’ brands,” he said.

Members of the legal departments at a number of consumer products companies have already expressed interest in joining ACACAP, says Dube. “Even though many of the larger companies have the means and abilities to handle enforcement on their own, only one has said that they don’t see the need for an organization like ours. Most companies we’ve spoken to are uniformly backing this idea.”

Dauer says that anti-counterfeiting is “such a huge field, that together we must define what our common interests are, and focus on those.”

At the moment, the membership is being polled to determine what the group’s priorities should be. “Then, we can figure out where we want to start,” says Dauer. “This organization has a big future, but it’s very important that we create a structure which is flexible and responds to the needs of the member companies. We expect those needs to change – the market is changing constantly – and we know ACACAP will need to change, as well, to match the needs of our member companies.”