On September 15-16, Lviv hosted numerous craft beer connoisseurs and producers to participate in II International Forum of brewers and restaurateurs called «Brewery as successful business. New trends in craft brewery». The event was held at the initiative of the international project “Horticulture and Viticulture & Wine. Technology and Innovation.” Pakharenko & Partners IP and Law Firm was a general legal partner of the event. The Forum brought together over 150 successful brewers, restaurateurs and representatives of well-known companies producing innovative equipment for brewing.

Within the framework of the event Pakharenko & Partners’ leading experts conducted a round table called «Protection and capitalization of brewery restaurant business». The event was moderated by Veronika Berezanska, the Head of the Commission on Intellectual Property and Unfair Competition of the ICC Ukraine, public projects coordinator at Pakharenko and Partners. The speakers of the round table were Ganna Prokhorova, senior lawyer of Pakharenko and Partners, Evgeniy Kompanets, deputy head of Legal department of Pakharenko and Partners, Mykola Kovinya, counsel of Pakharenko and Partners and Eduard Akhramovych, general producer – director of “Ukranimafilm” animation film studio.

Speakers highlighted practical aspects of intellectual property rights protection and enforcement specifically aimed to preserve and increase economic and creative investment of restaurateurs and brewers making craft beer. It should be noted, that the experts’ presentations aroused keen interest among the audience regarding IP issues; brewers and restaurateurs actively asked questions to find out more useful information both for their personal knowledge and for successful development of their own businesses.

Also, within the round table the social event titled “I Buy Real! I Don’t Buy Fakes!” was held which is a part of the awareness-raising campaign “Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy Days in Ukraine” of the Ukraine Alliance Against Counterfeiting and Piracy (UAACP). Participants of the round table had an opportunity to view a part of UAACP Museum of Counterfeits exhibition, namely the samples of counterfeit and pirated products. Prominent brewers and restaurateurs were surprised to realize that so far they had not thought of how someone might avoid being a victim of counterfeiters and buying fakes. Most curious «visitors» of the Museum had an opportunity to test their consumer’s skills by attentively studying the exhibits and trying to identify counterfeit features of goods.

During the event, UAACP conducted a public opinion survey regarding counterfeit goods consumption. Participants of the Forum were asked to fill in a survey form by answering two questions, in particular whether they had happened to buy counterfeit goods and whether this purchase was made consciously.

According to the received data, 10% of respondents claimed that they had never bought counterfeit goods; 40% of respondents admitted that they bought fake goods several times, but would never do it again; 50% of respondents provided their original answers, e.g. «I think I haven’t, at least I believe in that», «I have bought because I thought it was original», «Most likely I’m still buying because I cannot always distinguish a fake product from the original one», etc.

It is noteworthy that for the first time since this survey has been carried out none of the respondents chose the answer option “I purchased fakes and will continue doing it.” We hope this reflects the fact that the awareness level of Ukrainian buyers increases, not least due to the activities of the UAACP public awareness-raising campaign.

In the context of the “consciousness” of purchases, 10% of the respondents made a deliberate choice in favor of fakes despite product’s quality; 80% of the respondents bought counterfeit goods because they thought they were original and only afterwards they realized that they purchased fakes.

The survey demonstrated that even wealthy people (restaurant owners and successful business persons) may become the victims of fraud. Results of the survey showed that the majority of respondents bought fakes unintentionally, confusing them with genuine goods, but afterwards they realized that they were deceived; and therefore, in future, in order to avoid buying counterfeits, they will try to be more cautious.
As a keepsake of the event, all participants received UAACP public awareness-raising campaign visibility items with the slogan “I Buy real! I Don’t Buy Fakes!».

More photos — here