Mido reaffirms its commitment to combating fakes
Fashion forgeries - including fake eyewear - have reached mindboggling proportions. One out of every five Italians has purchased at least one counterfeit product over the past year.
The public sees branded eyewear as special. In these products, innovation, originality, design, reliability and safety come together to provide elevated product quality.
The level of consumer awareness achieved following the mighty efforts made by manufacturers nevertheless runs the risk of coming to naught each time a phoney product is purchased instead of an original one.
All too often, consumers knowingly purchase counterfeit eyewear of terrible quality on street corners or at the beach, underestimating how risky this behaviour is for the health of their eyes.
The Fair represents a great marketing opportunity for the companies that take part in it, but can also attract unscrupulous competitors who take advantage of the presence of millions of visitors to sell their fakes.
Mido has always been highly conscious of the need to safeguard intellectual property. Its Anti-Counterfeiting Service has been available to exhibitors for almost 15 years, and is once again on offer during its 39th edition in 2009.
Information, advice, protection and intervention: these are the keywords adopted to describe the activities undertaken by Mido’s Anti-counterfeiting Service. The service is provided by experts from the Anti-Counterfeiting Study Centre and is headed by its President, the lawyer Ms. Daniela Mainini, who attended the Fair in person.
The Service provides information and advice for exhibitors who want to get to know and improve their knowledge of the legal, technical and strategic means available to combat forgeries.
It also safeguards exhibitors, who can lodge a complaint against the presence of any products exhibited in breach of industrial property rights.
Following a brief assessment, measures can be adopted against the counterfeit item. These consist in first summoning all the parties in question in order to allow for a just dispute. If the issue fails to be cleared up, the Anti-Counterfeiting Service can request the removal of the exhibition space where the products are displayed.
Since exhibiting counterfeit products at the fair is a criminal offence – in more serious instances – a complaint can be filed with the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Milan, requesting the intervention of the legal authorities and seizure of the goods.
Furthermore, Mido's management will also examine the possibility of excluding the counterfeiter from exhibitions in future.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Service is available throughout the duration of the fair and is found in Building O16, next to Pavilion 22.
