New awareness campaign aims to beat bearing counterfeiting
17 November 2010
In the last two decades, product counterfeiting has grown substantially across the globe. While much has been reported about consumers being taken advantage of by counterfeits within the music, film, home electronics and designer clothing industries, a far greater risk lies in industrial counterfeiting of items such as tyres, seals and bearings, many of which are safety-critical products. Hence, fake versions can pose a genuine threat.
As a result, the World Bearing Association (WBA) has launched an awareness campaign to inform about potential safety hazards that arise from counterfeit bearings. The WBA anti-counterfeiting information campaign will reach out to various audiences via e-mails, website banners, social media and the campaign site itself (link below). At the website, interested consumers can learn more about threats imposed by illegal counterfeiting and what is being done to stop it.
Counterfeiting also violates intellectual property, such as patents and trademarks. Because counterfeits look like and are marketed as genuine products, it normally takes a trained expert to identify them. The competent authorities and the manufacturer’s brand concerned can also be contacted.
“Our initiative is aimed at sensitising the public on the dangers associated with counterfeits,” says James W. Griffith, WBA president and president and chief executive officer of The Timken Company. “The WBA is thus intensifying its anti-counterfeiting initiatives – that means information for customers on the one hand and consistent prosecution of offenders through the competent authorities on the other.”
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