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fight by software vendors against the counterfeits of their products
freely available in the market is something that all of us are well
aware of. Visit any IT market in the country and chances are that you
will not have to look far to find a
copy of
software being sold. However, it is a menace that even plagues the
hardware vendors. Not
many are aware about the sustained effort that printer and toner
manufacturers are putting to weed out counterfeit products from the
market. Fake toners are readily available in the market and that too
at half the price of the original. Whether it is ink packages, toner
packages, ink security labels, ink cartridges or miscellaneous
production material, counterfeiters have been able to replicate. It
is a daily battle for the hardware vendors, as consumers and to some
level even channel partners find it difficult to detect an original
from fake.
the menace of counterfeit products and how they finally reach the
Indian market Jeffrey Kwasny, Director-Brand Protection for Print
Cartridges, HP said, “Most of the counterfeit products are probably
assembled in India for circulation in the market here, but we do
think that some of the completed products and some of the components
could be imported from other countries in Asia also.” Explaining
how it usually works Kwasny elaborated, “Most of the cartridges
used by counterfeiters are simply used cartridges that have been
collected and refilled with non-genuine HP ink, and sold as a genuine
cartridge. These refilled products do not deliver the same level of
performance and value as a genuine HP cartridge. Furthermore,
counterfeit products are illegal and they can damage your printer, as
the quality of the ink and toner are not of the same quality as that
from HP.”
about the initiatives that the vendor has taken to tackle the menace
Kwasny said, “I would utilize worldwide statistics, without listing
India specific data. In the last four years, HP has conducted 4,620
investigations in 55 countries resulting in 3,528 enforcement actions
(raids) seizing a total value of more than $795 million worth of
counterfeit HP supplies products.” He also reiterated that as a
vendor HP defends its IP for original supplies by engaging in
industry-leading anti-counterfeiting practices to combat the
fraudulent sale of such counterfeit supplies.
does HP see its partners helping them tackle the spread of
counterfeit products in the market? “Not only have we kept our
partners aware of our enforcement action but we are also training
them on how to identify counterfeit products.” Apart from the
training, HP has also incorporated counterfeit alerts into new HP
products. Some products (printers and supplies) are designed to alert
non-suspecting customers if cloned cartridges or previously depleted
cartridges, which may have been refilled are being used. An HP
genuine security label has also been placed on all cartridges sold in
India as well as rest of Asia Pacific countries including Japan. The
details about how to use the label are available on HP's
anti-counterfeit (ACF) website.
“
actively works to inform customers how to identify a counterfeit
product from a genuine product through various means like our ACF
website, messaging on product packaging, educating our channel and
through press. Also, we regularly announce our enforcement action
through the mass media,” Kwasny concluded.
company has recently appointed Rajiv Srivastava as COO.