Central Asian States Discuss Joint Actions on Combatting Counterfeiting and Piracy and Protecting Intellectual Property Rights under Global Container Control Programme

UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia in partnership with the State Customs Service under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic conducted a Regional Workshop on Intellectual Property Rights called "Combatting Counterfeiting and Piracy" as a part of the UNODC-World Customs Organization (WCO) Global Container Control Programme (CCP) in Cholpon-Ata on 27-29 August 2019. Representatives of the Customs Administrations, Border Guards and Drug Control Agencies, members of the Port Control Units and other competent authorities from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan took part in the event. UNODC, WCO and right-holders from the private sector attended the training as well.

Mr. Almaz Saliev, Deputy Head of Customs Control Department, State Customs Service of Kyrgyzstan, noted that "over the past years there was a steady increase in production and trafficking of counterfeit goods in the world. This workshop is a platform for open dialogue among interested parties on urgent issues of combatting counterfeiting and protecting intellectual property rights."

Mr. Batyr Geldiyev, UNODC Regional Programme Coordinator, thanked the Government of Kyrgyzstan for hosting the regional event and stressed that it is organized in response to CCP participating countries' requests and needs which identified the importance of combatting counterfeiting, particularly falsified medicines, in the region.

The workshop provided the participants with an excellent opportunity to discuss legal mechanisms for combating counterfeiting, WCO tools for combating counterfeiting and piracy, types of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), IPR risk assessment techniques, safety and security measures, etc. Participants also interacted with representatives from the private companies and right-holders of the world most famous brands on themes how to detect fake goods and how to improve the cooperation between Customs and Private Sector. The workshop was concluded with development of joint follow up actions on further strengthening the efforts in combatting counterfeiting and piracy at national and regional levels with CCP support.

The CCP Regional Segment for Central Asia is funded by the Government of Japan and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), and the Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) Programme.

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