Production and dissemination of counterfeits became a serious problem in all the countries worldwide, including Ukraine.

The global professional community is placing a great emphasis on the necessity of building respect for intellectual property and raising awareness in business and public about the importance of protection of IP rights. Therefore, various public awareness and educational activities come at the forefront. Yet in 1998 International awareness-raising campaign «Global Anti-Counterfeiting Day» was initiated by the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group Network (GACG Network) aiming at educating consumers and reducing the volumes of counterfeits purchased. Ukraine also joined this process by launching in April 2012 a continuing awareness-raising campaign «Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy Days in Ukraine» at the initiative of the Ukraine Alliance Against Counterfeiting and Piracy (UAACP) in cooperation with the government authorities and the Ukrainian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Ukraine). A Mobile Museum of Counterfeits of the UAACP is the most outstanding feature of the campaign during which the visitors may test their consumer skills by trying to identify counterfeit features in the goods.  The Ukraine’s first permanent Museum of Counterfeits of theUAACP with over 300 samples of fake goods was opened on December 10, 2015 in the premises of the Kyiv University of Law of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine. On September 28, 2017 the Memorandum on Cooperation was signed between Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University and UAACP which also provides for creation of the UAACP’s Museum Of Counterfeits for students, teachers and other interested persons in the premises of the said university.

“Pakharenko and Partners” IP and Law Firm provides active support to this initiative taking part in regular activities for representatives of government authorities, business, students, schoolchildren, journalists. We also shared the samples of counterfeit products for the Museum of Counterfeits of the UAACP.

For Pakharenko and Partners this involvement represents the acts of social responsibility aimed at forming rational consumption model and raising awareness among the Ukrainian citizens about the risks and consequences of purchasing counterfeit goods. Changed outlook of potential consumers is expected to become the basis for increasing the competitiveness of domestic producers and the national economy as a whole. The Ukrainians should realize that counterfeiting is one of the main obstacles to the development of domestic production; violation of IP rights inhibits introduction of innovative industries and country’s  economic development; non-compliance with high quality standards in the agrochemical sector poses a threat of large-scale man-made disasters; fake medicines, toys, spare parts of vehicles, fertilizers and other similar goods may cause serious damage to consumers’ health and safety.

During five years of active efforts of the UAACP, with constant support of Pakharenko & Partners, 37awareness-raising events have been held not only in the capital of Ukraine, but also in other major cities such as Lviv, Odesa, Vinnytsia, and Rivne. More than 12,000 people took part in such events.

This year 13 such events have been held (one more event is planned for December), in the course of which their negative attitude towards counterfeiting was expressed by schoolchildren, students, representatives of government authorities (police, customs, courts etc.) and professional community, brewers, restaurateurs, producers of fruit and berry products, representatives of the hotel business and many others.

Moreover, the experts of Pakharenko and Partners are taking active part in organization and conducting of educational activities for the professional community, representatives of government authorities and youth. This year 23 such events were organized in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Vinnytsya, Rivne, Khmelnytsky. These events involved more than 6000 participants, including the representatives of the state authorities (police, customs, judiciary and others), professional community, various industries and others.

Among the said events I would like to particularly focus on the following:

1. In April this year a milestone event in the IP field was held in Kyiv. One of the capital’s hotel complexes hosted the 2^nd International Forum on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy “Counterfeiting and Piracy as threats to national security and economy” bringing together leading Ukrainian and international experts in the field of intellectual property. The event was initiated by the Ukraine Alliance Against Counterfeiting and Piracy (UAACP) and held with support of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine and The Legal Practice Journal.

The 1^st International Forum on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy was held in 2015 and its idea was to gather in one place not only the specialized professionals from all over the world and representatives of state authorities but also national and foreign manufacturers of various types of goods, managers of some of the world’s largest brand owning companies, and, eventually, the average consumers. This kind of audience is the most appropriate for productively discussing the actual issues of fighting counterfeiting and piracy and jointly developing the recommendations on improvement of the Ukraine’s strategy and tactics of solving this problem, implementation of the reform in the sphere of IPR protection and the system of measures to combat manufacture and dissemination of counterfeits, formation of the civilized product market in Ukraine and the favorable investment climate in the country.

What distinguishes our forum from other similar events is the fact that all discussion panels were dedicated to the fight against counterfeiting and enforcement of intellectual property rights. This seemingly narrow field of legal practice was given very thorough review by the speakers of the forum and the total number of topics discussed formed a two-day program of the event.  From morning till the evening, with only interruptions for lunch, the top-ranked specialists (from Ukraine and abroad) were highlighting the various aspects of one of the world’s most important problem of counterfeiting and piracy, combating the negative phenomenon with a focus on forming a rational consumption model and raising public awareness about the risks and consequences of purchasing counterfeits. It is rather outstanding that during almost 48-hour anti-counterfeiting marathon where the most urgent problems were raised, actual questions asked and answers sought, recommendations given, no topic was repeated, no question remained unanswered. The main message delivered to each participant of the forum was that the “evil” of counterfeiting and piracy may be overcome only through joint efforts and working together on solving the existing problems.

This year’s forum, unlike the previous one held in 2015, was a two-day event and brought together over 300 attendees including the representatives of state authorities (National Security and Defense Council, Ministry of Justice, State Fiscal Service, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, National Police, State Service on Food Safety and Consumers Protection and the courts) and business community (national and foreign right holders), law firms, patent attorneys, scholars and other interested persons.

The international speakers representing World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), ICC BASCAP, European Police Office (Europol), GACG Network, US National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), the Spanish Association for the Defense of Trademarks (ANDEMA), Asian Coalition Against Counterfeiting And Piracy (ACACAP), International Seed Federation (ISF), International Community of Breeders of Asexually Reproduced Ornamental and Fruit Varieties (CIOPORA), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Ukraine Alliance Against Counterfeiting and Piracy (UAACP) and other international and national organizations presented the ways of solving the problem of counterfeiting and piracy developed by the international community.

2. Another this year’s achievement of Pakharenko and Partners and UAACP was its cooperation with the Youth National Ecologic and Naturalistic Center of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The 8^th All-Ukrainian Biological Forum “The Touch of Nature” was jointly held this year. During this event over 200 participants and guests of the forum – the youth from schools and universities, leading Ukrainian scholars and teachers – took part in the awareness-raising event “I Buy Real! I Don’t Buy Fakes!”. In the course of this forum the innovation projects worth implementation in practice were chosen. The finalists received the prizes from Pakharenko and Partners, namely free consultation and free support in registration of their inventions.

During all its activities the UAACP is studying the public opinion on consuming counterfeit goods; the event participants are offered to fill in the survey forms by answering questions on whether they had happened to buy counterfeits and whether these purchases were made intentionally. According to the data collected during five years, 13% of respondents claimed that they had never bought counterfeit goods; 39% of respondents admitted that they bought fake goods several times, but would never do it again; 12% of respondents admitted that they bought fake goods and would continue doing it again; 20% of respondents had never thought about it and 16% of respondents provided their original answers to the question. In the context of “consciousness” of the purchases, more than one third of the respondents made a deliberate choice in favor of fakes (20% were attracted by the low price of the goods and find their quality acceptable; 14% do not care about the quality of goods and buy only cheaper things); more than half of the respondents claimed having been misled; namely, 51% of respondents unknowingly bought counterfeit goods because they thought they were original and only afterwards they realized that they had purchased fakes. Traditionally, 15% of respondents provided their original answers.

Results of the survey show that the majority of the respondents bought fakes unintentionally, confusing them with genuine goods, and only afterwards they realized that they were deceived; therefore in future, in order to avoid buying counterfeits, they will try to be more cautious.

We hope that our awareness-raising activities will help build respect for IP rights in our society and promote understanding of the importance of protection of these rights in business and public.