Source: Ministry of Justice - Brasília / DF - 07/10/2010

Brasília, 07/10/2010 (MJ) - On Thursday (7), the National Council for Combating Piracy and Crimes Against Intellectual Property (CNCP), the body chaired by the Ministry of Justice, held a training seminar for 200 municipal, state and federal public agents in Curitiba. The training is a partnership with the city of the capital of Paraná and has the support of the Public Ministry of Paraná.

 
This is the second seminar to assist in the identification of counterfeit products. The first took place in September, in Brasília. The training initiative is part of the Cidade Livre de Pirataria project, one of the 23 projects of the National Plan to Combat Piracy. It is an integrated work of the federal government and city governments of Brazilian cities against counterfeiting and commercialization of products that violate intellectual property rights. The project already has the support of Brasília, Curitiba and São Paulo.

 
The seminar is the second stage of the work to combat piracy developed by CNCP in Curitiba, which began with the signing of the technical cooperation agreement between the Ministry of Justice and the municipality. After the training, the next step will be the formation of a working group that will count on the involvement of the Union, state, municipality and civil society organizations for joint repressive and educational actions.

 
The executive secretary of CNCP, Ana Lúcia Moraes Gomes, explains that with the training agents will feel more confident in identifying products that sometimes, without having certain information, it becomes difficult to distinguish between the original and the fake. "The seminar is a valuable tool in tackling criminal organizations that control piracy in Brazil".

 
In the panel on piracy in Brazil, which opened the seminar, the executive secretary of the CNCP pointed out that since the creation of the Council in 2004, actions to repress counterfeit products have increased in the country. From 2004 to 2010, products totaling approximately R $ 6,3 billion were seized by the Federal Revenue Service. The Federal Police has launched 32 inquiries to investigate piracy.

Secretary Ana Lúcia also presented the numbers referring to fake medicines. Between 2004 and 2010, the Federal Highway Police seized 21,7 million pills on the roads - in 2010 alone, there were more than 17 million. The National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), in turn, removed 400 tons of pirated drugs from circulation in joint operations carried out until July this year. The secretary reiterated that the operations were only possible after a cooperation agreement between Anvisa and the CNCP and partnerships with the Federal and Rodoviária Federal police.

 
The training also includes the participation of speakers from the Brazilian Association of Software Companies (Abes), the Antipiracy Association of Film and Music (APCM), the Brand Protection Group (BPG - Brand Protection Group) and the National Surveillance Agency Sanitary (Anvisa).
 

Combating counterfeit drugs

During the training seminar, the Public Ministry of Paraná and the Regional Pharmacy Council of Paraná signed an agreement to intensify the fight against counterfeit medicines. The term provides for cooperation and articulation between institutions to suppress the practice, which is framed as a heinous crime.
 
For CNCP's executive secretary, counterfeiting of medicines is the worst piracy practice and the most harmful to society. "In addition to putting consumers' health at risk, it is the type of piracy you buy without knowing it, that you buy by being deceived", he warns.