intellectual property rights violation.

Intellectual property rights violation the new nemesis to globalisation
Intellectual property rights are granted to an individual or an organisation for developing or producing a unique product that improves the way of life or that revolutionise the we conduct our business. This is for acknowledging the person or organisation behind this may have expended financial resources, intellectual expertise or that a naturally acquired gift may have been used to arrive to such a unique product whatever it is. Intellectual property rights give the owners the exclusive rights over the production or distribution of the patented product and that a third party may reproduce only with the express consent of the owners of those rights. This has been the accepted norm throughout the world and for that reason we have the Bill Gates of this world, Google, Nokia, Toyota, persons or organisations committed to giving the world ever improving and better gadgets, vehicles or services. With the freeing of world trade, the globalisation was never intended to be the bane for intellectual property rights but it was actually supposed to work the other way, which is to encourage more naturally gifted people or innovative organisations to produce more and better. For everything good that has been said about globalisation, it seems that the growing problems relating to counterfeiting and intellectual property rights infringements are even making bigger case against globalisation of world trade and the chief culprit in these acts is undoubtedly China. Counterfeiting or infringement on property rights is the act of illegally awarding oneself someone else rights’ without consent for the sole purpose of making huge profits with little or no regard for any of the consequences and it is not an exaggeration to say that counterfeiting seems to have been perfected in China. Virtually everything and every well-known brand has become a victim of counterfeiting cartels and factories operating in China which itself has a huge market for these as well as ready export markets. Popular clothing brands like Gucci, Nike, and Calvin Klein have been victims, while software giant Microsoft is thought to be losing as much as $10 billion each year to software piracy. Every year billions of dollars’ worth of fake Nokia Phones, fake plasma Samsung TVs and even fake popular vehicles like Mercedes Benz are on sale in China. There are two main problems that are associated with such products, firstly the quality which in most cases is sub-standard because the materials used in the making of such illicit products is of poor quality and maybe of hazardous substances since the production process occurs mostly out of sight. So in other words the product will fail to meet the minimum quality standard expected of such a reputable product and as a result the original company that owns the brands that are being counterfeited will see its goodwill being battered by these fakes that bear its trade marks. Secondly the counterfeiting cartels produce their merchandise without having to worry about such costs as research and development costs, taxes and their labour costs are quite low especially given that they base these operations in China where the cheap labour is actually credited for China’s amazing economic growth. Ultimately it means their production costs are markedly cheaper and in light of the fact that a counterfeiting outfit is basically a get rich quickly scheme though on a much grander scale, the price of their final product is just miniscule to that of the original product. As a result the entire world has now been flooded with these cheap counterfeit products which are increasingly difficult to detect initially as they closely resemble the originals and the biggest losers have been the owners of these brands who cannot recover costs incurred in developing (R&D) and marketing the product. While from the point of view of consumers this is actually seen as a boon as they get to acquire their favourite products cheaply although they do complain eventually about the quality the bottom line however is that they take the bait hook, line and sinker. However for businesses counterfeiting has had a very draining effect on their operations and the knock on effects from this apparently even affect the very consumers who appear happy now. Firstly most of these organisations incur losses because their product will fail to meet the expected revenue threshold, a threshold that is in theory sufficient for the business to recover resources used in researching and marketing their product. Such losses will often result in the business concerned scaling back on R&D operations thus denying consumers of future innovations or improved products while workers may be laid off to minimise costs and certainly these consequences are far worse results than the pleasure of buying the ‘latest’ Nokia at half the price now. While there is a growing global lobby against counterfeiting particularly in China where it is estimated that 80% of counterfeit products come out of China, the problem though seems to be out of the Chinese leaders ‘control and there is no strong deterrence to rein in on counterfeiters. Developing countries like Zimbabwe have not been spared from this vice because even the few products that we pride ourselves have been victims of this globalised piracy. Bata Shoe Company has been known to produce quality and highly durable shoes for school children in particular but the market is presently flooded with cheap but fake Toughees, a famous Bata brand. At one time Schweppes had to issue a statement to warn the public about a fake Mazoe that was or is still in the market, there is a fake Nugget, a fake Mukonitroniks adaptor. These counterfeit cartels as we can clearly see prey on famous products anywhere in the world and produce these cheaply thereby prejudicing the brand owners millions of dollars. To date some of these local companies are facing problems directly associated with counterfeiting and that is why business organisations, consumers rights groups, workers unions and even the government need to work together to combat counterfeiting thus preserving jobs and the small research and development that we have going on here. Joining global anti-piracy groups will also help to reduce markets for these products because each member country will actively work to block of entry of these products into its borders.



Terence Zimwara
Economic consultant, contact him on tem2ra@yahoo.com or temra-temra.blogspot.com