Nabil Abdel-Ghaffar Special to the Gazette
Local traders want something done about the bogus commodities which harm not only the real owners of the brand names, but also consumers.Trademarks are supposed to protect companies,
but some unscrupulous traders steal them to help market their products. Atef el-Ashmouni, the Secretary-General of the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, says that trademarks are the only way consumers can trust the commodities they buy. ''commoadities with a genuine trademark also carry a sell-by date and a list of ingredients or components,” el-Ashmouni told Al-Alam Al-Youm business daily.“Traders who steal trademarks also damage the reputation of the big companies that produce genuine commodities,” he explains, calling for stiffer penalties for these thieves.Article 113 of the Law on Trademarks (2002) stipulates that trademark forgers should receive a two months' prison sentence and a fine of between LE5,000 and LE20,000. El-Ashmouni explained that the Cairo Chamber of Commerce was planning training courses on the importance of trademarks for 3,000 traders nationwide.Layla el-Beili, who works for the Chamber, says that the forging of trademarks is rife in Egypt, as certain traders want to get rich the easy way. “It's easy to forge trademarks and the fakes look just like the real McCoy. To get round the law, the traders make a small change, for example turning a 'b' into a 'd'. Many Egyptians don't notice the difference, because English isn't their first language,” explains Layla, adding that the fakes are generally cheaper than the genuine products.
