Without copyright, creative individuals might not put their energies into developing their skills. The different types of intellectual assets can be used together to offer a high degree of protection. Protecting right across geographical and political boundaries poses some very difficult problems for companies to resolve. Various United Nations agencies are currently engaged in trying to agree on a set of principles that will be applicable to the main trading blocks. The World Trade Organisation is also researching ways of enforcing rights and collecting fees.
Considerable problems exist with pirating, bootlegging and fakes.
The sophistication of these copies has led to some household names, such as Levi's employing people to travel the world looking for copies of their famous products. China is thought to be one of main centres for look alike products and with the conduits of Hong Kong and Macao the future looks rather good for the copiers. Elsewhere, the cotton industry of Greece, which is located on the plains above Athens grows the cotton, spins it and then produces jeans and tee shirts. Strangely Greek markets sell cheap 501's, Calvin Klein tee shirts and other famous name cotton products. The dismantling of many of the trade barriers that have accompanied the expansion in 'global' trading mean that checks for authenticity have become more difficult to apply.