Global piracy trade "worth $100 billion"

The World Intellectual Property Organization hosted a conference on identifying new ways to curb the "rampant growth of counterfeiting and piracy" at a conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, in early February. The Neuer Zuericher Zeiting newspaper's on-line edition, quoted what it describes as "conservative estimates" of the economic cost of these forms of illegal trade at more than $100.0 billion per year. For the Swiss economy alone, the damage caused by violations of intellectual property rights is evaluated at 2.0 billion Swiss francs ($1.60 billion).

The WIPO, in a statement, said that "today, almost every product on the market is a target of counterfeiting and piracy, endangering human health and safety, and undermining economic development." A particular concern is the volume of fake drugs: figures published by the World Health Organization suggest that, worldwide, one 10th of the drugs market is made up of counterfeit products, rising to 25% in some developing countries (Marketletters passim).

The conference heard that the worst offending country for IPR violations was China: the European Union calculates that 84% of all goods seized by the region's customs officials comes from the fast-growing Asian country. However, Felix Addor, the Deputy Director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Intellectual Property, is optimistic about the future, despite explaining that China's poor IPR compliance is partly a consequence of the country's large size and the fact that it has only recently joined the WTO.