Firms kick-start piracy battle

HAVE you ever washed your hair with Hateline Shampoo, or eaten package of Rkittles candy? Perhaps not, but tens of thousands of mainlanders have and that has Hazeline soap manufacturer Unilever and Skittles candy-maker Mars hopping mad.

Trademark piracy and infringement is costing multinational companies tens of billions of dollars in the mainland every year. And what is being pirated is not just computer software, soap and candy. Luxury goods, such as Prada handbags, health-care products, such as Johnson & Johnson's Band-Aid adhesive bandages, and Honda motorcycles are all being ripped-off.

'The counterfeiters are very smart people,' said Unilever's China business development director M.P. Ma. 'Compared with five years ago [counterfeiting] is really improving. The technology is getting better.' Mr Ma should know. Within three months of launching its new Hazeline Shampoo, the firm has found 30 separate knock-off imitations at markets throughout the country. Those imitations are packaged in similar plastic-wrapped bottles, bearing names such as Haziline, Hashilian and Hateline.

Moreover, counterfeits are creeping into shops. At a factory raid in Guangzhou last week Unilever officials found 250 boxes with 5,000 empty bottles of duplicate Hazeline Shampoo waiting to be shipped.

All that counterfeiting and imitating adds up to serious money. According to a Survey Research Group study, counterfeiting cost Unilever's 16 mainland joint ventures an estimated 250 million yuan (about HK$232.6 million) in lost sales last year alone. And the problems are getting worse, according to company officials.

'For trademark makers, being successful give rise to piracy,' said Nicholas Redfearn of British intellectual property rights consultancy Rouse & Co International. 'No industry is immune and all successful manufacturers have problems.' To help find solutions Unilever - together with other mainland-based multinationals such as Mars, Johnson & Johnson and Henkel - helped convene the Guangdong Action Group (GAG) at a three-day conference in Guangzhou last week.