Manufacturers call for regional fight against counterfeits

Kenyan manufacturers have taken the fight against counterfeit goods to the rest of the East African region and called for a harmonised strategy to fight the menace.

The Kenya Association of Manufactures (KAM) Thursday launched a study that showed that fragmented efforts to deal with intellectual property rights was not effective in clamping down on copyright infringement.

Kenya operates the Anti-Counterfeit Agency while Tanzania uses the Fair Competition Commission and Rwanda the Intellectual Property (IP) Office under the Rwanda Development Board and the police.

Uganda, whose Anti-Counterfeit Act has just been signed into law, proposes the establishment of an agency to deal with counterfeits through the marriage and business registration body - the Uganda Registration Services Bureau. In South Sudan, matters of IP enforcement and counterfeits have yet to be incorporated in mainstream policy.

The KAM survey says illicit trade was killing industries and has the net effect of rendering the region's countries serial importers.

“This is a real threat to the economy as it has led to shrinkage of the market share by approximately 40 per cent, according to a 2012 KAM survey.”