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Interpol offices, the brand protection
manager of SKF Petter Ronnborg,
said: “SKF uses the right quantity
and materials to produce the best
products and that is why SKF is
here to fight those people who
manufacture fake products and pass
them off as SKF.”
Benson Oyo Nyeko, the director
of Interpol and International Affairs,
said the officials also impounded
counterfeit industrial bearings, tins of
grease and other lubricants among
other fake items. “Counterfeiting
is a serious problem affecting our
nation and the economy as a whole.
Imagine we seized a sizeable amount
of goods in a small area of Kampala
but there is a huge amount of these
goods in open market,” he said.
ACN director for legal and
corporate affairs, Fred Muwema,
said the arrested persons are
facing charges which include
counterfeiting a trademark, falsely
applying a trademark, manufacture
and possession of dye as well as
prohibition of import and export of
infringing trademark goods.
Muwema said counterfeit goods
constitute up to 70% of the goods
on the Ugandan market due to the
weakness in the legal framework.
“Dealing in counterfeits is
counterproductive and criminal for
it affects the economy’s tax revenue
but most significantly peoples’ lives
are at risk. We lose at least 10 people
every day due to motor accidents
because of vehicles that fail to break
due to fake bearings,” he said.
So, what is the best possible
defence against the incorporation of
fake bearings into your production?
The advice offered by the World
Bearing Association (WBA) is
simple: only use trusted, authorised
suppliers. Another – perhaps obvious
– piece of advice is to be suitably
wary of any heavily-discounted
products that are offered. After all, if
something seems too good to be true,
it probably is!
Naturally, this problem extends
to the Schaeffler Group, too. Indeed,
in 2016, a total of 182 seizures
worldwide were made due to
trademark violations suffered by
the Schaeffler Group. 5,675,812
counterfeit parts were confiscated
during these raids. Furthermore, in
March 2017, an importer in Turkey
was imprisoned and counterfeit
rolling bearings with a nominal
value of €250,000 were destroyed
after customs officials suspected
FAG-branded bearings might not
be genuine and sent photographs to
Schaeffler’s Brand Protection Team,
who then took a look into it.
Schaeffler’s response has come
in the form of its OriginCheck app,
which provides end customers,
distributors and authorities with an
easy method of clarification. If checks
lead the user to suspect that a product
may be counterfeit, he or she can use
the app to take additional steps.
Checks are carried out based
on the traceable data matrix codes
(DMC) on Schaeffler packaging.
These two-dimensional codes
contain various types of information
in a machine-readable form and
allow the relevant product to be
identified worldwide. 90% of
products that are supplied by
Schaeffler today already feature a
DMC on the packaging.
The user scans this DMC with the
OriginCheck app and immediately
receives notification of whether the
code is in the Schaeffler database.
If one of these Schaeffler codes
is authentic but has already been
scanned multiple times, the user
then receives a warning based on
a defined set of criteria. If this is the
case or if the code’s authenticity is
clearly not confirmed, the app can be
used to create suitable photographic
documentation of the product being
checked. !
Fake packaging
is relatively easily
produced
IFNUFROTHER
More information
about the fake
bearings industry
can be found at www.
stopfakebearings.
com, which is a
WBA website that
serves as both
an awareness
and educational
platform, helping
bearing users
to become
more informed
consumers. The
site stresses the
importance of
only dealing with
authorised and
trusted sources.
JULY 2019 | WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK 27
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