Seen and heard: counterfeiting news in brief

Fuel marking, counterfeits on FaceBook, Slayer takes on merch bootleggers, anti-counterfeit market and Jamaican conviction.

Philippines plans fuel marking to tackle illegal sales

The government of the Philippines is planning to add marking technology to all fuel sold in the country by the end of the year to help it crack down on the illegal trade of petroleum products, which it estimates costs it P40bn ($760m) in lost revenues every year, according to Inquirer.net. The fuel marking system, which involves the addition of a chemical marker, was pilot-tested last month, says the report. According to figures presented at the 1st Anti-Illegal Trade Summit in Makati, the estimated value of smuggled goods was P680bn between 2011 and 2015, cutting the Philippines’ gross domestic product by 0.48 per cent.

UK police crack down on Facebook counterfeit sellers

The City of London’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) seized goods in Manchester overall a three-day period last week as part of an operation against counterfeit goods sellers on Facebook Marketplace. Officers are making sellers aware of the risks that these products pose to the people who buy them and highlighting the fact that this is a criminal offence. PIPCU says it has suspended over 40,000 counterfeit websites since its launch in September 2013, but adds that “as social media capabilities develop, fraudsters have turned to Facebook Marketplace in the hope that they can evade police.” Among the most commonly counterfeited items are clothing, shoes and handbags, leaving victims out of pocket and with sub-standard, often harmful products.

Slayer files lawsuit against merchandise counterfeiters

Thrash metal band Slayer has filed a lawsuit against criminals trying to cash in on its farewell tour by selling counterfeit T shorts and other merchandise, according to the Northern California Record. Global Merchandising Services, which has exclusive rights to sell the band’s merchandise, asked the US District Court for the Southern District of California to order local law enforcement to crack down on the bootleggers and has filed for trademark infringement against “numerous independent unlicensed peddlers and manufacturing and distributing companies,” it continues.

Report predicts strong growth for anti-counterfeit market

The global anti-counterfeit packaging market is projected to reach $208bn by 2023, according to a new report from P&S Market Research, with growth driven by serialization and track-and-trace technologies that currently account for around 45 per cent of the overall market. Track-and-trace mandates in the US, Europe and elsewhere for medicines mean that the pharma industry represents the largest customer for anti-counterfeit packaging – accounting for a quarter of the market last year – while the fastest growing region over the forecast period is expected to be Asia-Pacific with a compound annual growth rate of 13.5 per cent.

Man fined in Jamaica over fake Nike, Adidas, Puma and Converse shoes

In Jamaica, Chinese national Shifu Huang has been has been fined J$15m (almost $120,000), which he must pay or face eight months in prison at hard labour, for unlicensed use of trademarks held by sports shoe manufacturers, reports the Jamaica Observer. He was arrested twice for the same offence, and was charged with selling counterfeit shoes branded as Nike, Adidas, Puma and Converse products.