At the Daugavpils City Festival on 1 June, the Latvian Patent Office (LPO) participated in the City of Education event with a public information campaign to raise the Daugavpils residents’ awareness of the value of intellectual property and the negative impact of counterfeiting, as well as to promote a positive change in the public’s attitude towards the distribution and purchase of counterfeits and to popularise the city of Daugavpils as an "authentic" European city that recognizes authentic products only and does everything necessary to fight counterfeits and their distribution.
At the LPO’s stand, people explored the exhibited fakes and learned about how to recognize them. It is worth mentioning that children quickly identified fakes of the LEGO construction toy. Playing the Wheel of Fortune and correctly answering what a patent, or a trademark or a design is, the winner could receive a bag designed by a Daugavpils University student Baiba Briede who had won a competition co-organised by Daugavpils University and LPO. The people of Daugavpils showed their great interest and also erudition in the activities of the campaign and listened to the stories of the LPO’s employees not only about counterfeits, but also about trademarks, patents and designs.
It was one of the events implemented by the LPO, the Daugavpils City Municipality and Daugavpils University within the framework of the European Network of Authenticities project initiated by the European Union Intellectual Property Office.
The next Network of Authenticities event is planned for 27 September, on Science Day at Daugavpils University.