Counterfeiting

You may well have read some of the stats: the global trade in counterfeit goods comes to some US$600 billion per annum; this trade in counterfeit goods represents  5 -7% of world trade; counterfeiting has grown some 10 000% over the past two decades. These facts and figures are published in the press on a regular basis, and they're available on the website of the International Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance (IACC), www.iacc.org.

Luxury goods manufacturers are, of course, particularly susceptible to counterfeiting, and we recently published an article in which we reported that a Chinese court had handed  down a life sentence to the head of a gang that manufactured fake Hermes bags.  This sentence reflects  just how seriously the authorities are taking counterfeiting.  If you think that life imprisonment sounds absurdly harsh for someone who copies handbags, please bear in mind that a few years back a South African law enforcement officer based in Durban was