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Toronto law firm of Kestenberg Siegal Lipkus LLP. "I suspect the recession is increasing counterfeiting, but it's hard to tell," he adds.Despite the economic slowdown, the sale of counterfeit products is booming. In the past 20 years, the counterfeit goods business has grown 100 times over, according to the Canadian Anti Counterfeiting Network's Report on Counterfeiting and Piracy in Canada. And in the past five years, Canada has come under fire internationally for not doing more to combat the trafficking of counterfeit goods."Our government has not passed adequate laws, nor have they given the proper mandate to customs or police to deal with this in a significant way," says Lipkus, who has worked with Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Prada. Under the Criminal Code, offenders can serve a maximum of two years in jail."It's a false sense of security for people to think that the penalties under the criminal code are adequate," says Lipkus. "We have penalties up to $1 million, but no one has been penalized up to the maximum."According to Lipkus, often people who sell imitation designer products are given minimum sentences and fines. Instead, they must contact the RCMP to conduct an investigation.Lipkus says that counterfeit goods regularly enter the Canadian market because the RCMP lacks the resources to investigate all suspect shipments. The RCMP is working to change that, according to Sgt. Sylvain St Jean, the national Intellectual Property Rights co ordinator."We are working with the private sector and various government agencies to address this problem and put together a common front," St Jean says.Still, counterfeit items pop up in many places, and the business is no longer just relegated to street vendors and flea markets. Lipkus notes that he recently had a case where a store that had been in a mall for years was found to be selling knockoffs of designer brands such as Affliction, Rock n Republic and Ed Hardy, at discounted prices. And in the United States, retail giant Wal Mart settled a lawsuit with Fendi in 2007 for carrying counterfeit handbags at Sam's Club stores."Some of these counterfeit purses come in beautiful boxes; they have certificates of authenticity,"