Seizures and discoveries last week include a record haul of 90,000 fake watches in Mexico… Operation Blackout, an anti-piracy enforcement, yielded more than 650 suspected pirates and 2.6 million pirated discs in the Asia-Pacific region… In the US $300,000 worth of counterfeit sports merchandise was seized in the final week of the NFL’s Super Bowl… A huge seizure of 200,000 pirated DVDs took place in Malaysia.

Cases and outcomes include the music industry filing legal proceedings against a number of Chinese internet companies, including the countries largest; Baidu… In the US a ruling may force EBay to spend more money on blocking the online sale of counterfeit items after a trial was brought by luxury goods brand Tiffany… A British man has been fined over £500,000 for smuggling over 3 million counterfeit cigarettes into the UK.

Studies and reports out last week include one on the Fourth Global Congress Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy which took place last week in Dubai, hosted by Dubai Customs and the World Customs Organization… The trade in counterfeit and illegal cigarettes reportedly costs the UAE government around $150 million annually… One report out states that there has been a 53 percent increase in Chinese firms using legal copyrighted software over a five week period… During the 2007 fiscal year the US Department of Homeland Security seized an estimated $200 million of counterfeit merchandise, an increase of 27 percent from the year before.