ITU to Build United Front against Technology Fakers

ITU will host high-level talks in a bid to improve global coordination in the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) as part of strategies to combat counterfeit and substandard ICT devices.  

Discussions on ‘Combating counterfeit and substandard ICT devices’ will be held at ITU Headquarters in Geneva, 17-18 November 2014 to take stock of the global challenges posed by counterfeit and substandard ICT products and the role to be taken up by ITU in response.

Leading experts representing industry, governments, regulatory authorities, international organizations and standards bodies will participate.

A focus of the event will be to examine the role of ICT innovations such as Big Data, Cloud Computing, Identity Management and the Internet of Things in tracing counterfeit goods and identifying their origins.

A Call for Contributions open to the public is inviting input to this discussion until 3 November.

“Consumers rely on brand names and international standards to provide an assurance of quality, and this assurance is relevant to consumers in developed and developing countries alike,” said Hamadoun I. Touré ,ITU secretary-general.

“Counterfeit and substandard ICT products demand international action. Such products raise the risk of network disruptions and interoperability challenges that result in poor quality of service, with potentially dire consequences in emergency situations.  They also pose major risks to consumers’ health and safety and that of our environment, especially related to the disposal of e-waste from such products.”

“Counterfeiting is a complex challenge in need of a dynamic response in the public interest,” said Francis Gurry, WIPO director general.

“ITU’s move to assist the global response to the counterfeiting challenge addressing the specificities of the ICT sector is a welcome development, to which WIPO is pleased to contribute.”

Counterfeiting and non-conformance with international standards have motivated the initiation of a range of counteractive strategies at the international, regional and national level.

By leveraging its public-private membership base and longstanding experience in the ICT industry, ITU hopes to bring greater clarity and coordination to the role that ICTs play in executing these strategies. 

ITU’s nascent engagement with counterfeiting comes in response to a new mandate conferred by its 193 Member States at the World Telecommunication Development Conference in Dubai, 30 March to 10 April 2014, which adopted Resolution 79 on ‘The role of telecommunications/information and communication technologies in combating and dealing with counterfeit telecommunication/ICT devices’.