The Gospel of Fakes

Police across the world are increasingly asked to join the fight against fakes that a large and robust global web of intellectual property (IP) regulations has established. But how do already over-stretched police come to believe in this fight and devote scarce resources to it? To answer this, I examine the peculiar space of the IP conference, and the force of persuasion it delivers. Conferences matter because they transform abstract IP policy into pressing priority. In the space of the conference, officers are drawn into carefully scripted narratives of counterfeiting-as-crime and come to experience viscerally the dangers fakes reportedly pose. Through a careful reading of conference proceedings alongside fieldwork at IP conferences, I show how conferences banish the doubts of police and deliver persuasive force.