Canon is one of the many global brands affected by the illegal counterfeiting of its products. The imaging company works closely to fight against counterfeiting on a worldwide basis, to protect the valuable Canon brand and to safeguard the customer value that comes with using genuine Canon products. Counterfeit products are often manufactured in poor manufacturing conditions.
Canon has been fighting against counterfeit in India for more than 10 years to safeguard the interests of their customers and always encourages reporting any possible counterfeit activity. To protect customer’s right and brand reputation, Canon has been actively extending anti-counterfeit raids all over the country.
There are regular instances of counterfeiting around the country and Canon tries to bring the offenders to book. A raid took place on 18 August 2016 at a manufacturing unit in Kalachowki, Mumbai where Counterfeit Canon toner cartridges, counterfeit Canon outer toner cartridge boxes and counterfeit Canon packaging material for toner cartridges were seized. One person associated with the crime had been arrested and the seized material brought to Kalachowki Police Station for legal action.
Counterfeiting – Crippling the society
Counterfeiting is one of the most deadly viruses that affect the entire IT industry. It not only tarnishes the image of original brands but also adversely affects the economy. China is the biggest source of counterfeit goods in Asia. It is estimated that as much as 30% of the counterfeit products worldwide are being manufactured in China. Looking at the data from a reliable source, it is found that counterfeiting contributes nearly 8% to China’s GDP. As far as the Indian market is concerned, counterfeit products are easily accessible in the Indian market. Metros are the main spots for manufacturing infringed products.
Users of counterfeit products risk poor equipment performance, including low toner yield, inferior print quality and toner leakage. They should be cautious of possible indicators of counterfeit products such as suspicious packaging, unusually low prices (when it’s “too good to be true”) and the manner in which the products are sold (which can differ from the manner of normal business).
Canon takes a zero tolerance stance towards counterfeit products and has been pursuing counterfeit products in India for many years. To fight counterfeit, a unique Canon hologram is included on the packaging of all genuine Canon ink cartridges, laser toners, copier toners, cameras and camcorder batteries. The hologram has a unique colour-changing feature which appears as an iridescent gold when viewed from the front, but changes to a dark iridescent green when tilted horizontally. If the hologram is counterfeit, this colour change does not occur or the change is slight. l
