History of the museum
Musée de la contrefaçon
Fondation of the association
The association is founded with the aim of building an international system for the protection of intellectual property and, in general, works for better recognition of industrial property rights, in particular trademarks. Under the aegis of its director Count Maillard de Marafy, it collects overtime a colossal amount of documentation and publishes the first Dictionary of Intellectual Property as well as the first repertory of trademarks.
First office and early collections
UNIFAB now playes a key role in the advancement of intellectual property rights and opens its first offices on Place de la Madeleine in Paris. In order to gain persuasion during counterfeiting trials, it collects and lists pairs of items consisting of an original and its copy. These pieces of evidence constitutes a collection of legal archives which forms the basis of the future Museum of Counterfeiting.
Creation of the Museum of Counterfeiting
The association grows and moves to the Opera district in a vast building on Avenue du Coq, where its archives occupies an entire room. This is the birth of the Museum of Counterfeiting, officially inaugurated on the occasion of the celebration of the association’s fiftieth anniversary in 1922. Carefully documented, these collections still have an essentially legal function.
Establishment 16 rue de la Faisanderie, Paris
Over the years, UNIFAB constitutes a unique documentation in terms of counterfeiting and repertory of trademarks. Soon its archives exceedes 1600 meters and requires more space: the private mansion on the rue de la Faisanderie met the association’s need and becomes its headquarters. Since then, the Museum of Counterfeiting is located in the actual Seizures room.
Opening of the Museum to public
Celebrating its 100 years of existence, UNIFAB openes the Museum of Counterfeiting to the general public, which remained open for professionals only until then. The museum has a single room exposing the archives of the association. The leaflet designed for visitors explaines that “the Union des Fabricants created this museum to raise awareness on the infringement of TRADEMARKS, DESIGNS & MODELS and to contribute to the repression of counterfeiting.”
Modernization and expansion
Counterfeiting is developing with progressive globalization, raising demands for an explanation of the increase of this phenomenon. The Museum of Counterfeiting is therefore redesigned and expanded in order to illustrate the phenomenon more widely. Temporary exhibitions complementes the museum on different themes and the first guided tours are offered for visitors wishing to obtain more information. Raising awareness of the harmful effects and consequences of fake products becomes a necessity. The impacts on health, safety, the environment and the economy are now addressed.
Adding of the artistic collection
Eager to demonstrate the diversity of products affected by counterfeiting, the museum is opening a new room to inform visitors about copyright infringement and the phenomenon of forgery in art. The collections presented all come from judicial seizures transferred to the association for educational purposes.
Creation of the room dedicated to the fight against counterfeiting
There are more and more visitors to the museum and most of them wondered: “why aren’t we doing anything to stop counterfeiting?” The room dedicated to the fight against counterfeiting is created to respond to this public concern and compensates for this lack of information: there is indeed inter-professional and international cooperation at work to combat counterfeiting, but the phenomenon is of such magnitude that it is more necessary than ever to be informed because everyone is now an actor in this fight.