On 11 June, the opening event of the Patent Office’s 2026 anti-counterfeiting campaign “Fake Toys = Dangerous Play” will take place at the event space “Siltumnīca” in Āgenskalns Market. From 16:00, children and their parents are invited to take part in creative workshops, where they will have the opportunity to make original and useful summer toys, as well as assemble unique building kits created in Latvia and win valuable prizes.
At this year’s anti-counterfeiting campaign, the Patent Office will focus on the dangers of fake toys, explaining how to protect oneself from purchasing counterfeit goods and how to recognise them. During the event, visitors will be able to learn about the current consumption of counterfeits in Latvia and internationally, as well as about their distribution trends. Invited guests will share their experiences, and attendees will have the opportunity to view counterfeit items confiscated by the Customs Board of the State Revenue Service, including a children’s quadricycle.
The event will feature:
- Agris Batalauskis, Director of the Patent Office;
- Linda Rinkule, Director of the Goods and Services Supervision Department and Deputy Director, Consumer Rights Protection Centre;
- experts from the Customs Board of the State Revenue Service;
- content creator and mother of two Kristīne Beitika.
The event will be hosted by programme and podcast producer, author, and mother, Kristīne Stakena.
For the youngest visitors, the creative workshops will offer an opportunity to make their own kite and try skills in assembling the Latvian-made, safe building kit “KNOP KNOP”. The building kit is not only an original toy, but an invention patented in several countries worldwide. By taking part in the activities, participants will have the chance to get useful summer items, such as the “KNOP KNOP” construction set. Alongside the workshops, visitors will be able to compete to build the tallest tower in a large-scale Jenga game and take part in other educational activities.
Toys are among the most commonly counterfeited categories of goods, as evidenced both by the annual statistics compiled by the Customs Board of the State Revenue Service and by the results of international operations. In Operation LUDUS, coordinated by the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), more than 7.8 million toys were seized in 2025, a significant proportion of which were counterfeit or unsafe for children.
In Latvia, toys also regularly account for a substantial share of detained counterfeit goods, in some years reaching very high proportions and consistently ranking among the top five categories of seized items. In 2025, a total of 4,079 counterfeit toys were detained, representing 17.11% of all seized counterfeit goods.