Brand manufacturers aren't the only victims of product counterfeiting, according to Jeremy Wilson, a criminal justice professor at Michigan State University. "It's not just Louis Vuitton losing money
on a handbag," he says.
The underbelly of the knock-off trade is child labor, lost jobs and human trafficking, Wilson says. As a result, Amber Hunt reports, MSU has launched the
Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection Program -- A-CAPPP -- which it says is the first comprehensive research and training program designed to address counterfeiting.
Working
with agencies such as the FBI, Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Homeland Security and the Food and Drug Administration A-CAPPP is creating a database to track counterfeiting incidents
in the U.S. in the hope of developing ways to thwart enterprises that take in about $600 billion a year.
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