Another awareness raising event “I Buy real! I Don’t Buy Fakes!” was held in Kyiv on June 4, 2015 within a national awareness-raising campaign “Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy Days in Ukraine” which is a part of the World Anti-Counterfeiting Day campaign initiated by the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group (GACG Network). This year the event was supported by the National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Politechnic Institute”, the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine and IP and Law Firm Pakharenko & Partners. Alla Zharinova, the Chairwoman of the State Intellectual Property Service of Ukraine, and Petro Kyrychok, Vice-Rector for Scientific and Pedagogical Work of the NTUU “KPI”, have personally participated the event.

The national campaign was launched by the Ukraine Alliance Against Counterfeiting and Piracy (UAACP) in spring 2012 with support from the State Intellectual Property Service, the State Customs Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the International Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine (ICC Ukraine) and its aim is to educate the Ukrainians and build their respect for intellectual property, promote formation of a rational consumption model and raise their awareness about the risks and consequences of purchasing counterfeit goods.

Kyiv residents and guests of the capital, students, professors and scientists who participated in the event found out that counterfeit goods are not just cheap imitations of goods of famous brands but they are also a part of crime that may even cost lives; while a pirated software is not a snipe but the loss of tax revenues in the state budget of Ukraine, lost jobs and drain of highly skilled programmers abroad.

Representatives of the UAACP explained that the illegal businesses dealing in counterfeiting and piracy are the part of a huge criminal industry which is a relatively risk-free way of making money and is closely linked with other crimes such as illegal drugs, arms, human trafficking and terrorism. Thus, we may conclude that by purchasing counterfeit goods we are financing organized crime.

Nowadays the fakes have spread all over the world throughout the product market. The problem of counterfeit and pirated goods affects almost all countries of the world and all industries thus becoming multinational and inter-industry challenge. Participants of the public awareness event could see it for themselves by viewing the UAACP’s Museum of counterfeits displaying counterfeit clothes, footwear, toys, accessories, cigarettes, replacement blades for shaving, agrochemicals etc.

Taking into account that certain types of counterfeits such as medicines, toys, spare parts for machines, cars, agrochemicals may pose serious threat to consumer health and safety, we should realize that
- counterfeit goods is one of the main barriers hampering national manufacture;
- infringement of IP rights hampers implementation of innovational business models and the country’s economic development;
- non-compliance with high quality standards in agrochemical sphere may cause large scale technogenic disasters.

It is particularly important that there is a clear understanding that counterfeit goods cause harm not only to each individual consumer, but also to the state as a whole, considering the loss of billions of Hryvnyas of potential tax revenues to the Ukraine’s state budget, the reduction of foreign direct investments as result of the country’s lowered investment attractiveness, growing corruption and crime rate, as well as the lack of fair competition on the market.

The social event “I Buy real! I Don’t Buy Fakes!” aimed to highlight the problem of counterfeiting and change the public attitude towards purchasing counterfeit goods because only by common efforts the spread of counterfeits may be stopped, and being aware of the consequences will allow each of us not to become a participant in a crime.

Everyone should bear in mind that by purchasing a counterfeit product we are not just getting the product of doubtful origin and quality but also personally supporting organized crime and hampering the development of our national product market, national science and modern technologies.

In overall, the event went easily and well, the participants had had an opportunity to talk to qualified specialists, ask them the questions of current interest and receive detailed answers. Each person received a promotional gift as a keepsake of the event.

Video: http://pakharenko.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/eng6.mp4

You can view the gallery at the following link: http://uaacp.org/index.php/home-uk/7-news/477-fotogalereya-04-06-2015.html

The reports on this event are also available on the websites of the State Intellectual Property of Ukraine, ICC Ukraine, Department of Curriculum and Discipline of the NTUU “KPI”, The Yuridicheskaya Praktika, The Yurydychna Gazeta and other publications, the special footage from the event was broadcasted on “Tonis” TV channel.