China is the source of most counterfeit goods

Up to 86% of counterfeit goods produced and sold around the world originate from China according to a new study  ‘Measuring the Magnitude of Global Counterfeiting’ conducted by the Global IP Centre in the US. The report documents their findings on physical counterfeiting across the 38 countries included in their International IP Index.

According to the World Trademark Review, the GIPC compiled the report through predicting a country’s favourable tendency towards these goods due to their corruption and IP protection protection levels as well as by looking at statistics from the World Customs Organisation and the aforementioned IP Index countries on the valuation of confiscated counterfeit goods.

The published report claims that between 2010 and 2014, 14% of counterfeit goods originated in Hong Kong and a phenomenal 72% were exported from mainland China totalling 86% of the world’s counterfeit goods. According to a report filed by the EU IP Office  the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development the total estimated value of the global counterfeit trade is $461 billion , meaning that $396 billion of this is for Chinese goods alone.

Although China’s IP enforcement practices have decidedly advanced over the last few years, the country still has room for improvement through the elimination of counterfeit goods.

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