According to the Federal Ministry of Justice, the German Association of textiles and fashion came to an agreement with China on the protection of intellectual property. Additional agreements were concluded with India and Russia. The objectives of these are stricter controls on trade fairs in order to fight counterfeiting as well as raising awareness in the countries involved and taking measures against companies counterfeiting trademarks.
Counterfeiting of products and trademarks have led to unprecedented big losses and challenges to international trade. According to the latest figures by the OECD, product counterfeiting causes damages amounting to 200 billion US dollars worldwide. For Germany alone, annual damages are estimated to amount to approximately 25 billion Euros. 