Printer Cartridges are 7th Most Counterfeited Products Seized by US Customs

According to the Detroit Free Press, counterfeit computers and accessories (including ink and toner cartridges) accounted for 3% of the total value of all seized counterfeit goods in the USA in 2013. This places them   as the 7th most counterfeited products. Seizures of counterfeit computers and accessories products have amounted to more than $13 million, or 37.5%, higher than in 2012.

Therese Randazzo, Director of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) policy and programs on intellectual property rights, explained that accessories include “integrated circuits, semiconductors, networking hardware, [and] printer cartridges.”

As was revealed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), “counterfeited products cost the global economy around $250 billion (€181 billion) a year.”

US CBP sees $1.2 billion of the $1.7 billion counterfeit goods seized in the USA coming from China. Therefore, the CBP observed, in addition to its intellectual property rights framework, China’s role in manufacturing may “contribute to the country’s high level of counterfeiting.”

The OECD noted that the CBP has established new cooperation with a variety of partners, such as China Customs, to improve the process and methods of detecting counterfeiting operations as well as the ability to target and intercept shipments of infringing products.