Editorial: Knock off buying knockoffs

Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004 | 8:54 a.m.

Once last year, and again last week, Metro Police raided stores in Las Vegas and impounded nearly 3,200 items suspected of being either counterfeit or knockoffs. Counterfeit items are cheap but convincing reproductions bearing brand names. Knockoffs are generally sold as such, but their designs are copied from famous brand names in violation of copyright and trademark laws. Customers who want the look but not the price keep this criminal trade thriving.

It's unfortunate that so much of the responsibility of cracking down on these businesses falls to local police departments, whose priorities are investigating violent crimes and patrolling neighborhoods. Just two raids in two years underscores Sheriff Bill Young's admission last year that investigating such sales is not as high a priority as investigating other, more immediately urgent crimes.

Yet this practice, which undercuts almost every product imaginable, is costing the federal, state and local governments around the country billions in lost tax revenue. It's costing the country an untold number of manufacturing jobs. It poses a safety threat -- do you want to fly in an airplane with counterfeit parts? It's costing legitimate companies their most valuable asset -- consumer confidence. And it might be aiding our enemies, as the federal government believes terrorists derive some of their revenue from such sales.

The manufacture of illegal products for shipment to unscrupulous dealers in America takes place all over the world, especially in China. The federal government should pressure these countries to crack down on this illicit industry. First, though, it should more heavily involve itself in shutting down the retail and online outlets here. We'll never get foreign cooperation while sales here are blatant and admittedly a low priority.