MUMBAI: Kids Media India (KMI), the licensing division of Spacetoon Media Group and World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) have joined hands to curb merchandise piracy in India. The WWE superstar Kane, who was in Mumbai to promote their ,erchandise products, expressed his concern on the growing menace of piracy in the country.

Kids Media India will facilitate the licensors about information of pirated merchandise that is available across the country, which in turn helps the licensors to conduct raids. The recent completion of one such raid conducted in New Delhi by the Delhi Police has resulted in seizing a large consignment of WWE products.

The Indian piracy market is estimated to be more than the organised goods industry but there is no official status on it that growing at maniacal pace, affecting the profitability, and the overall industry. In many countries that have a prevalent culture of pirated product sale and usage, it brings down innovation and creativity but also breeds subversive behavior in the society.

Spacetoon – South Asia managing director and CEO Rajiv Sangari said, "The counterfeit market accounts for approx $ 6.07 billion worldwide and Indian markets has been cluttered with pirated products, we at KMI believe that genuine merchandising product is a right of every child, he should be able to have access to good quality genuine products at economical prices, which will in turn also reduces the dependency on the counterfeit products."

WWE vice president – consumer products division Ross Walker added, "In all markets where WWE has active and pending trademark registrations, the company remains committed to protecting its intellectual property in India and eliminating counterfeit products, which profit those individuals and companies intent on providing low quality fake merchandise to the millions of WWE Indian fans."

The various categories where in merchandise piracy is rampant includes toys, games, garments, stationary, accessories etc.