When in Paris, IP Dragon does not only highly recommend you to visit le Louvre at the rive droite and le Musée d’Orsay at the rive gauche so you will be awed by the original works of great artists. For a more, let’s call it balanced world view, you must also hop on le métro and stop at Porte Dauphine in the XVI arrondissment, and stroll to Rue de la Faisanderie where you will find a very special place at number 16. Here you can witness the shockingly ingenuity and deception of the pirated and counterfeited products devised by devious but sometimes likewise brilliant minds at Le musée de la Contrefaçon. Quelle horreur, but how interesting! The Union des Fabricants pour la Protection Internationale de la Proprieté Intellectuelle (UNIFAB) has founded this museum already in 1951. See here. Therefore you can see the developments of the fakes over more than half a century and you will be confronted with some of its dramatic consequences. “The imitation will not have a secret for you anymore”, as UNIFAB states. At the museum you will see that many of the counterfeits originate from China.
If you are not going to Paris this year you can visit another museum which exhibits the same subject matter: the Counterfeit Museum, sponsored by law firm Lehman Lee and Xu. Most law firms that deal with intellectual property law have a kind IP altar in the office where the fake and genuine goods are standing next to each other. It is a great idea to share them with the world via a virtual museum. Each law firm could do this, or even better when they join in so the collection at one museum will be more interesting. So far the Counterfeit Museum has four rooms: Clothing and Accessories, Food and Restaurants, Movies and Music, and Appliances.
