"EIPR provides compelling intelligence to the law to act against an erring party."

Zaheer Khan, Director, Enforcers of Intellectual Property Rights (EIPR), clarifies that his agency is not a raid-conducting party. "That is the job of police. What we essentially do is provide adequate and compelling intelligence to the law to act against an erring party," says he. 

EIPR dispels the common misconception about price benefits accrued by parallel imports and refilling activities. States Zaheer, "An import which is carried out by paying appropriate duties and taxes is fully legal. However, majority of those who indulge in parallel imports, in some way or the other, evade taxation." He points out that if a partner was to pay all the duty and taxes, his purchase price would not be any lower than what he would have paid had he bought the product in the country. 

EIPR, the agency involved in looking after copyright and intellectual property infringement issues, has predicted a piracy/counterfeiting rate of about 30-40% in the domestic IT hardware segment. Zaheer says, "While supplies (consumables and media) constitute a large chunk of counterfeit products, chip-based products (like motherboards, graphic cards) and input devices (mice, keyboards) too flourish in the fake version. Compared to other industry segments like consumer durables and FMCG, counterfeit activity in IT hardware segment is relatively high." 

With regards to refilling, Zaheers clarifies that EIPR doesn't consider refilling an illegal or questionable activity. "However trying to sell a refilled cartridge or toner as an original is a case of fraud, and we treat such matters very seriously," comments he. Apart from working with major vendors like HP, Intel, Epson, EIPR also helps Business Software Alliance (BSA) in checking piracy activity. He also warns that those resellers who feel that they are less guilty because they might have sold very few fake products, need to change their mindset. "Vendors adequately spread awareness against fake/counterfeiting activity and if a partner still doesn't take it seriously, he is liable to get punished," cautions he.

Zaheer also suggests that one of the easiest ways to identify a fake product is an appreciable price differential between the product that a partner buys and the actual company rates. He also advises the channel to leverage various mechanisms that vendors have put in place to combat piracy and counterfeiting activity. 

GOLDIE

MUMBAI