pa|CONTACT US What we offer. Our clients are global owners of intellectual property and brand protection teams who want to streamline, digitalize and professionalize their operations, case & project management, intelligence & data analysis, collaboration, communication & reporting of anti-counterfeiting activities. Manage your everyday operations and make insightful decisions with |a origo™ against counterfeiting, intellectual property theft, unauthorized use and non-compliance sales networks. Secure your exclusivity and prestige by working in a single unified SaaS platform at the center of your brand protection activities. |a origo™ a premium experience. About us. Accelerating brand protection and transforming the legal game. Our solutions are designed by brand protection professionals for brand protection professionals. We have passion and dedication for brand protection since 2007 in the forefront of legal tech. We have proven and certified SaaS solutions through security compliance of ISO 27001 and TISAX. We are trusted by some of the largest brands in the center of their brand protection. We have a worldwide brand protection network cross industries with users in over 60 countries. We offer first class experience, built with perfection and intelligence based on years of knowledge and million records of data. Our clients. Trade in fake goods is now 3.3% of world trade and rising. Trade in fake goods, which infringe on trademarks and copyright, creates profits for organised crime gangs at the expense of companies and governments. As a consequence of the booming demand for exports, counterfeiting is skyrocketing in the fashion and accessories industry. The parts market is rife with counterfeits due to the demand for quality products and the expansion of sales channels- and markets. Counterfeit electronics have rapidly become a major concern for brand owners. As we become more digitally reliant and the global demand for medicine increases, brand protection plays a critical role. Counterfeit foods jeopardise health and safety and can severely damage trust and confidence in brands. Chemicals surround us in our daily lives – from food, cosmetics and clothing to transportation and technology, chemicals are the building blocks of the things we use and consume. We are proud to be appointed to lead. ISO 22386 will contain guidelines for brand protection and enforcement procedures. The vision is to give world-class guidelines for the practices, procedures and systems to ensure the quality, safety and efficiency of brand protection.
sm|Protect profit Protect innovation Protect influence Protect investments Protect people Protect health & safety
st|A first class digital platform that reinvents brand protection management. Collaborate. Collaborate. Identify. Identify. Communicate. Communicate. Prioritize. Prioritize. Quantify. Quantify. Tailored. Dedicated. Secure. Trusted. Network. Experienced. Read about the new ISO standard and other articles.
h1|When brand protection matters.
h2|A world leading digital solution that empowers brand protection teams in their everyday work. Manage your everyday operations. The number one legal tech solution for brand protection teams making insightful decisions. We are brand protection professionals. We are helping the world of industries. Fashion. Automotive. Electronics. Pharmacy. Food. Chemicals. We are responsible for drafting guidelines in the field of brand protection to support the new ISO standard. 
h4|We believe that a brand is a company’s most valuable asset for creating sustainable business. sales and revenue. and making new discoveries. equity, trust and reputation. and trying to make a difference. and society from illegalities. of producers and consumers.
sp|Our solutions New Collaborating with internal teams, external partners, and authorities is the key to win the battle against counterfeiters globally. We make multi-parties’ work easy. Identifying products, finding the patterns and sources of counterfeits are the daily challenges in the enforcement. We help you to gain product knowledge quickly, find the roots and connections. Communicating case progress, sharing identification results and target information is crucial for great teamwork. We have the perfect platform to follow the entire communication history of each case. Prioritizing time and budget so you can focus on high-value targets, key products, and focus areas. We perceive and standardize your decision- making process so you can focus on value-added activities. Quantify the value of your activities, seizure values, compensations, and show the significance of your work. We challenge you to go from reactive to proactive, from impossible to possible. Read more about us Explore Our articles
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pa|CONTACT US About us. With a strong team of experts in law, brand protection, anti-counterfeit and software development, we strive to be in the forefront of legal tech helping our clients by delivering constant value and innovations to make true impact and solve complex problems. Our vision is to be the number one legal tech solution for brand protection teams making insightful decisions. – We do this by – Learn more about |anticounterfeit and our solutions. Video from the networking event where users from different industries gather and shares experiences. An overview of the system functionality and features that will give you an good insight on what the system does for your business. Service for IP owners who are searching for an effective and sustainable China anti-counterfeit solution. We are secure and certified. We are ISO27001 certified. Our information security management system (ISMS) uses a systematic approach to managing sensitive company information so that it remains secure. It includes people, processes and IT systems . We are certified in accordance with ENX Association governs TISAX (Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange) on behalf of the German VDA (German Association of the Automotive Industry). We are supporting. To us, as a company as well as individuals, it is important to stand by human rights and to protect the world that we all share. We believe we all have a duty to be responsible in all our decisions. Due to the illegal nature of counterfeit goods, there is no oversight over labour conditions or agency to enforce workers’ rights. Protecting your brand is all about taking responsibility, responsibility for your company and staff, your partners and consumers, the environment and people. Privacy notice & cookies policy. We at DH Anticounterfeit are committed to maintaining the trust and confidence of our clients and visitors to our web site. In particular, we want you to know that DH Anticounterfeit is not in the business of selling, renting or trading email lists with other companies and businesses for marketing purposes. We just don’t do that sort of thing. However, should you still feel unsure or interested in learning more, we have, in this Privacy Notice & Cookies Policy, provided lots of detailed information on when and why we collect your personal information, how we use it, the limited conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure. DH Anticounterfeit uses cookies on dhanticounterfeit.com (the “website”). By using the website, you consent to the use of cookies. Our Privacy Notice & Cookies Policy explains how the privacy data is collected and how it is handled, what cookies are and how we use them. It explains how third-parties we might partner with may use cookies on the website, your choices regarding cookies and further information about cookies. Cookies are small pieces of text sent by your web browser by a website you visit. A cookie file is stored in your web browser and allows the website or a third-party to recognize you and make your next visit easier and the website more useful to you. Cookies can be “persistent” or “session” cookies. If you’d like to delete cookies or instruct your web browser to delete or refuse cookies, please visit the help pages of your web browser. Please note, however, that if you delete cookies or refuse to accept them, you might not be able to use all of the features we offer, you may not be able to store your preferences, and some of our pages might not display properly. For further information visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/ When you use and access the website, we may place a number of cookie files in your web browser. We use cookies for the following purposes: To enable certain functions of the website To provide analytics, to store your preferences. To enable advertisements delivery, including behavioural advertising. We use both session and persistent cookies on the wbesite and we use different types of cookies to run the website: – Essential cookies. We may use essential cookies to authenticate users and prevent fraudulent use of comment posting and/or request for information. In addition to our own cookies, we may also use various third-parties cookies to report usage statistics of the website, deliver advertisements on and through the website, and so on. For exampe, when someone visits www.dhanticounterfeit,com we use a third party service, e.g. Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify a particular individual. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. For more information, please see Google’s privacy notice. As part of the registration process for our e-newsletter, we collect personal information. We use that information for a couple of reasons: To tell you about stuff you’ve asked us to tell you about To contact you if we need to obtain or provide additional information. To check our records are right and to check every now and then that you’re happy and satisfied. We don’t rent or trade email lists with other organisations and businesses. We use a third-party provider, Hubspot, to deliver our newsletter. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter. For more information, please see Hubspot’s privacy notice. You can unsubscribe to general mailings at any time of the day or night by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of our emails or by emailing our data protection contact, please see How to contact us. You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please email or write to us at the contact details provided further down. We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. You may ask us to correct or remove information you think is inaccurate. Our website contains links to other websites. This privacy notice only applies to this website so when you follow a link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies. We keep our privacy notice & cookie policy under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page. This privacy notice & cookie policy was last updated on 19 Nov 2020. Please contact our data protection contact Magnus Lasses if you have any questions about our privacy notice and/or cookie policy or information we hold about you: By email: info@dhanticounterfeit.com or send a letter to: DH Anticounterfeit AB, Skolgatan 2, SE-302 32 Halmstad, Sweden.
sm|We offer a world leading digital solution that empowers brand protection teams in their everyday work.
st|Being professional Deliver quality Partner relationship Make true impact With unique features Personal and reliable First class user experience Peter Furby, CEO User Meeting Origo Product Presentation China Litigation Service
h1|About
h2|Check out our videos. We take every step to keep your data and business safe. The NGO Free the Slaves and their fight against trafficking and slavery and Fridays For Future. How do we use cookies and collect privacy data. 
h4|We help teams and professionals to bring sustainable value to their business. ISO27001 CERTIFIED TISAX CERTIFIED What are cookies How we uses cookies and collect privacy data Third party cookies Mailing lists Access to your information and correction Other websites Changes to our privacy policy How to contact us?
sp|VAT SE 559042781001 | Corporate no: 559042-7810 | D UNS No: 352883134 | IBAN:SE84 1200 0000 0138 4018 0872 | BIC/SWIFT: DABASESX
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h1|Contact us.
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h4|Please fill out the form below and we will be happy to contact you shortly. Use this form if you want to schedule a demo or get access to our showrooms.
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pa|CONTACT US Our clients. Dh Anticounterfeit’s software is helping us keep track of a huge amount of details about many cases and, equally importantly, help us cross-reference cases that we are working on with others that are pending or that we have been working on in the past. It’s great to have a centralized system for our global efforts, where we can also easily obtain relevant statistics for any given time and geographical area. THORUNN SIGURDARDOTTIR, PVH (BRAND OWNERS OF CALVIN KLEIN, TOMMY HILFIGER, VAN HEUSEN, IZOD, ARROW, SPEEDO, AND MORE) The DH Anticounterfeit cloud solution enables our Anti-Counterfeiting Team to work together globally with all relevant case information in one place. The quality of our case handling has improved significantly leading to faster turnaround of cases. Further, the statistical information processed through CaseMate is very valuable for building and improving anti-counterfeiting and brand protection strategies. Me and my former team at Sony Mobile has been using software from DH Anticounterfeit. It´s been great to follow the development of their platforms over the years. Without their software we could never have been as efficient as we were. I have direct access to the External Registration portal to register suspected counterfeit cases for my client, a large consumer electronics company. I find the system straight forward to use and well structured for uploading and tracking cases. Fashion. As a result of the increasing demand for product export, we see how counterfeiting is threatening the fashion industry. With today’s advanced technology infringers can produce products very similar or almost identical to genuine products, making it very hard for consumers to differentiate a genuine product from a fake. For the Brand, the consequence is the loss of revenue, Brand damage, and unfair competition which could make it hard to succeed in new markets. In these fast-evolving times digital tools like dh|a origo is a necessity for Brand Protection professionals in their fight against counterfeiters. Our platform allows collaboration and communication between internal teams, external partners, service providers, authorities, and other Brands. Automotive. Counterfeiting is not limited to a few products or certain countries but a world-wide problem affecting most market segments. The most common fake vehicle parts are filters, brake pads, alloy wheels, and airbags. With today’s technology, many counterfeited parts produced are almost impossible to distinguish from the original. Brand protection is a necessity for Brand reputation, preventing loss of revenue as well as the safety of the consumers. With our platform dh|a origo the Brand protection team can collaborate and communicate between internal teams, external partners, service providers, authorities, and other Brands. Electronics. Counterfeit electronic parts have for a long time been a major concern for brand owners. Many parts are almost indistinguishable from the original, made from poor quality materials and are not tested against the safety standards. This means they could easily catch fire, injure, or possibly even cause death. Counterfeited goods are often manufactured and sold by criminal networks to fund other crimes such as human trafficking, drugs, child exploitation, prostitution and terrorism. dh|a origo allows your team to work unified, prioritizing cases and key products. Communicate and collaborate within one central platform. Pharma. Brand protection plays a crucial role in the increasing global demand for medicine. Poverty, poor healthcare, or doctor wait times also result in consumers exploring new ways to purchase medicines. As consumers get more used to the digital world, they now have the option to take control of their health through smartphone apps, and other devices. Falsified and substandard medicines kill about one million people each year, which is more than malaria, and Brands in the pharmaceutical industry need to work extremely hard on protecting their consumers and themselves. dh|a origo allows you to work smarter, more efficiently, and prioritize cases. With our open API, we can connect to other service providers that offer track and trace solutions, advanced labels, holograms, etc. With all data in one place, you will find patterns and sources of counterfeits. Food. Counterfeit foods cause severe health and safety issues and can damage the confidence and trust in brands. Since food and drink are high-risk products, brand protection plays an important role to prevent these illicit products from reaching end consumers. Our platform dh|a origo allows your team to work unified, prioritizing time and budget so you can focus on high-value targets, key products, and focus areas. Chemicals. With worldwide sales channels, counterfeited cosmetics and perfumes pollute our market. Fake cosmetics and perfume are potentially extremely harmful to consumers and Brand protection is crucial to the beauty industry. The Brands face fake prestigious labels on cheaper, faulty products to manufacturing elaborate counterfeit packaging to grey market counterfeiting. These malpractices have dramatic consequences both on the brand’s image and reputation but also on the health of consumers. They also result in a significant loss of revenue for professionals in the beauty sector.
sm|Some of the largest organisations in the world already trust us in the heart of their brand protection activities.
st|Managing huge amount of data. Enabled global collaboration. Creating real efficiency. Structured for tracking cases.
h1|Clients
h2|Reclaim your logo. Preventing loss of revenue as well as the safety of the consumers. Reclaim your safety standards. Prevent illicit trade, protect consumers and yourselves. Seriously jeopardising both health and safety. Don’t let counterfeited chemicals pollute the market. 
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bo|JOHAN HULSHOF, IP & LEGAL COUNSEL KEN BONEFELD NIELSEN, FORMER HEAD OF CORPORATE SECURITY DEPARTMENT, SONY MOBILE TIM WARING, DIRECTOR
pa|CONTACT US Partners. One of our prime partners. DJL works together with legal professionals in different fields to optimize and model the legal knowledge and dispute handling process in the field of IPR, and cooperates with the first-class information technology experts in China to implant the collective wisdom of many legal experts into the intelligent system.
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h2|Illegal producers, suppliers, distributors and traders work in networks, and so do we. DJL is a leading legal service platform in China. 
h4|Today we have brand protection teams, service providers, lawyers and investigators using our digital solution all over the globe for sharing data and insights, collaborating and communicating.
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pa|CONTACT US Articles. 10 March, 2021 E-shopping is becoming increasingly popular these days as customers prefer the convenience of ordering items from home rather than driving to a physical store and purchasing goods there and then. From getting groceries delivered to your door to ordering a costume for Halloween, the Internet pretty much has it covered. But like all things made […] The threat of counterfeit products can impact every industryand product you can imagine – from the software you use on your computer, tothe shampoo you use to wash your hair. These products are not only illegal, butin the case of software, they can contain viruses and dangerous codes, and inthe case of shampoo, toxic ingredients […] Social media has been revolutionary for business, but this comes with an obvious drawback – shady businesses get to benefit, too. Although most social networks prohibit the sale of counterfeit goods, a quick search of any luxury brand name on any social network brings a plethora of results, and it’s always the same thing: countless […] 16 February, 2021 The value of brands to brand owners are both intangible and tangible. Brands enhance the intellectual property rights and the related innovations of the brand owners. Brand reputation can often lead to brand equity resulting in great monetary value while at the same time, building consumer confidence. In recent years, counterfeiting activities have become even […] 5 December, 2020 A successful brand protection strategy must also be accompanied with an efficient digital strategy. Looking at legal departments in general, in the absence of case studies on brand protection teams, 65% do not have a clear digital strategy with milestones and due dates. Furthermore, 79% of the legal departments indicate that there is no specific […] 9 November, 2020 High expectations with limited resources are always the biggest challenges that a brand protection team faces. Often we understand our priorities, yet feel powerless to actually take the move obstacle due to budget, time limit, or complexity reasons. Clearly, priority is not the only thing that needs to be considered. Return on investment is perhaps […] 28 October, 2020 We are responsible for drafting guidelines in the field of brand protection to support the achievement of ISO 22386, with the vision to give world-class guidelines for the practices, procedures and systems to ensure the quality, safety and efficiency of brand protection. The ISO 22386 provides society, business and professionals with the practical tools that […] 17 October, 2020 With cases of counterfeiting and fraud becoming more and more prevalent, particularly in large businesses, it is important that your brand is as protected as possible. Technology is progressing all the time and this means that people trying to defraud you have more tools to hand. To counteract this, it is important that your business […] 30 September, 2020 Collective actions could be the next best thing in the fight against counterfeiting, as brands team up to share information and crack down on counterfeit goods sold on popular online shopping destinations. According to The Economic Impacts of Counterfeiting and Piracy, the cost of counterfeiting will be $125 billion by 2022. Counterfeit products are not […] 21 August, 2020 The damage caused by counterfeit goods to the economy, environment and even perhaps our overall quality of life should be something of a given for most people. Perhaps Intellectual Property rights-holders are those most likely to feel the true pinch of this rogue industry, but when one considers the big picture it becomes clear that […]
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h2|To get smarter, we are talking to people in the industry to understand their pains and gains. 
h4|Together with our clients and partners we have gained knowledge and experience on brand protection. Follow us on go get continuous updates on best practices within the industry.
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pa|CONTACT US 30 September, 2020
st|What it means Who’s doing it How collaboration works The results
h1|How brands collaborate to fight counterfeiting.
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sp|Collective actions could be the next best thing in the fight against counterfeiting, as brands team up to share information and crack down on counterfeit goods sold on popular online shopping destinations. According to The Economic Impacts of Counterfeiting and Piracy, the cost of counterfeiting will be $125 billion by 2022. Counterfeit products are not only damaging to brands and costly to consumers and authorities – they can be deadly. With the rise in popularity of online shopping – about 96% of Americans shop online in 2017 – it is important now more than ever for companies to join forces against this type of crime. Counterfeit goods sold online include designer fashion and electronics, as well as more dangerous products such as fake pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and home appliances. The Annual Meeting in Barcelona of INTA has brought together various brands and government representatives to a workshop in May 2017 to work on collaborating against counterfeiting. The initiative highlights the importance of bringing together different actors, such as law enforcement agencies and various intermediaries such as search engines and payment providers, together with brand owners and the public sector – to take the fight against counterfeiting a step further. Other similar initiatives have also taken place, such as Alibaba’s Rights Holders Collaboration Summit in 2016. The idea is that different companies can pool resources, share information, provide technical support and expertise on IP authentication to screen listings and take down fake sellers. More than a hundred brands attended Alibaba’s Summit – and big name brands that attended the event include Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Apple, Mars and HP. The Chinese British Business Council also attended the event, while companies such as Adidas and Procter & Gamble were already on board with the initiative. As a result of Alibaba’s collaboration with law enforcement previously, four different sellers attempting to sell counterfeit Nike and Adidas shoes were caught. This summit arose right in the nick of time – as Alibaba has been listed as one of the prime destinations for counterfeit goods. The issue in general has been gaining more traction in recent times, and Alibaba has responded in the best way possible – working to reduce counterfeiting worldwide with an innovative idea. More recently, Alibaba launched the ‘Alibaba Big Data Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance’, which includes over 20 brands. Websites which provide listings from third-party sellers are at particular risk of becoming a hub for counterfeit goods – and they might struggle to tackle the issue alone. Alibaba’s efforts to combat counterfeiting might prove to be for nought unless other brands collaborate in the effort. By collaborating, brands can increase communication and pool resources to get to the root of the problem. Websites such as Alibaba can scan their listings to look for counterfeit goods which are stealing trademarks of brands within the alliance. Data and analytics can be used in their favour in their efforts against counterfeiting. Workshops allow brands and other officials to discuss the best course of action to take against counterfeiters, and how collaboration can yield better results. Through collaboration, the relevant parties can pick up on instances of counterfeiting as soon as they happen, and before any damage is done. A program by UNIFAB, INDICAM and ANDEMA titled “Authenticity’, would include cities such as Rome and Paris who would dedicate themselves to protect trademarks through collaboration with various parties. With their new Alliance, Alibaba claimed that their system scan over 10 million listings on its website each day, and have removed over 380 million listings, shut down 180,000 sellers and brought hundreds of counterfeiters to justice. Through company collaboration, both brands and consumers can operate in a much safer environment as the crackdown on counterfeiters is taken to the next level.
pa|CONTACT US Seamless collaboration with your global brand protection service providers Customizable prioritization algorithm Smart identification process Product knowledge management Bulk managing cases, milestones and actions Multi-party communication center Brand protection financial management Automated reporting Target connection visualization and analytics Global enforcement statistics and intelligence Open API and Integrated with REACT, IFSP and more Visualize and quantify your brand protection efforts Overview of all your cases, project, actions, target, service provider and products |a origo Our clients gain confidence and control at every stage of the case process. |a origo allows you to collaborate with team members, and partners to keep everyone on the same page sharing case information. With our built-in product library and sophisticated identification module and case reports, handling cases is a breeze. Dive into analytics by linking cases, products, and parties and work smarter in your battle against infringers. Bring intelligence to your daily brand protection operations. Next generation of CaseMate, CASEMATE CaseMate is the ultimate tool for all your brand protection cases – both online and offline. It is a management system specialized in helping brands to streamline their daily brand protection tasks – making the team five times more efficient in handling cases. CaseMate can be implemented to manage infringements affecting any product category including fashion, industrial and consumer electronics, beverages, automotive, beauty and pharma etc. Today there are CaseMate users in more than 60 countries.
di|Manage your everyday operations and make insightful decisions with |a origo , an innovative legal technology SaaS platform that empowers your business to analyse, interpret, and optimise brand protection. Ideally suited for brand protection teams, product security teams, IP enforcement teams, customer safety teams and more.
st|Empowering brand protection professionals to handle complexity with |a origo With origo your team performance and efficiency will be improved.
h1|Make insightful decisions.
h2|Tailored for the best brand protection team experience. Automate and streamline your workflow to focus on what makes true impact. Scale your brand protection effort by structuring data that you can trust. An innovative and intelligent SaaS solution for your entire brand protection work. An integrated suite of case management systems for brand protection 
sp|Let's find out New |a origo is a new and innovative cloud platform that is built to stay ahead of counterfeiters. Book demo
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pa|CONTACT US 10 March, 2021 E-shopping is becoming increasingly popular these days as customers prefer the convenience of ordering items from home rather than driving to a physical store and purchasing goods there and then. From getting groceries delivered to your door to ordering a costume for Halloween, the Internet pretty much has it covered. But like all things made by humans, the good comes along with the bad and the ugly. Online pharmacies are seeing an increase in popularity for the same reasons as any other e-service; it offers customers an easier, cheaper, and more private alternative to the real thing. But receiving a red bell pepper instead of a yellow one doesn’t even begin to compare to getting your medicine mixed up in the mail! When people take the wrong medicine they are putting their health, even their lives, at risk. The major obstacle for us is that fake medicine tends to be difficult to identify. For this reason, as well as outlining the dangers of buying medicine online, we’ll also list the various ways through which you can find out whether the medicine you get in the post is legitimate. Firstly, it is important for you to always remember to check the medicine you’re ordering. When it arrives take note of its physical appearance and make sure that things like the colour, texture, and packaging haven’t changed. Always alert your pharmacist if you notice any differences. Counterfeit drugs are fake or copycat drugs that can be difficult to identify. That’s why it’s so easy for people to make mistakes when buying their drugs online. Even the tiniest difference in your medicine can make a large difference to your health. This is because medicines that are produced by unknown sources or approved by other countries may have slight variations and/or different ingredients to what was prescribed to you. This could cause you to get sicker, develop new symptoms, or develop resistance to your prescribed medicine. Additionally, if you’ve been prescribed with more than one type of medicine, taking counterfeit medicine could affect the way that the medicines work together and can cause harmful interactions. These rogue websites sell cheap and potentially dangerous drugs that have not been checked for safety and effectiveness since they tend to be unapproved by a proper authority. So what you buy can end up having the wrong active ingredient, or too much or too little of it. There’s no need to panic, there are several ways that you can check whether the medicine is a counterfeit or not. A fake online pharmacy is generally full of tell-tale signs for you to recognize that it’s a fake. The most obvious one that you should watch out for is that it doesn’t give you a contact number or address for you to reach them. Another is that it offers prices that are dramatically lower than the competition. Some of these places may simply be trying to get your personal data in order to misuse it, so always check that the data you enter is protected. Since the websites are made to look legitimate, identifying a fake can be difficult. But don’t worry, there’s even more you can do to make sure you’re safe. Most importantly, never buy a prescription drug without a prescription. Most of these websites allow you to do this, despite it being illegal. That’s also why you should check with the relevant authorities whether the online pharmacy has a valid license and meets the quality standards. As much as possible, use state-licensed pharmacy websites, to make sure that there is no mix up with what you buy. After all this, you may be wondering why people would even do it. Keep in mind that we’re living in the technical age – we love it when things are available to us online. So there’s no need to avoid buying medicine online completely, just keep what has been said here in mind when doing it. After all, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that just 1% of medicine available in the developed world is counterfeit. Globally, this figure stands at 10% and in areas where counterfeiting is weakly legislated against, such as in some regions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the percentage of counterfeit drugs is raised up to 30%. Moreover, it is estimated that of those illegitimate online pharmacies, 50% of the medicine available for purchase are counterfeit. Put simply, when browsing smartly the odds are in your favour. Identifying counterfeit medicine is a tough process, even for scientists. But keep an eye out for oddities in the website you access as well as any dissimilarities in the medicine you receive, and the danger will be revealed to you.
st|The Dos and Don’ts It’s All in the Details The Stats
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pa|CONTACT US Articles. 28 February, 2020 It is understandable that cash-strapped parents will always be on the lookout for the most affordable way of keeping their children happy. The price range of sought-after branded toys can put a financial strain on the average parents’ pocket, so much so that sometimes, going for the black market knock-off may seem like a viable […] 28 June, 2019 When one thinks of counterfeit items, the obvious items such as branded luxury articles come straight to mind. Less known counterfeit items include fake food stuffs, and to a much lesser extent, consumers are not fully aware of the growing industry of counterfeit transport related products. Such fake products are less common when compared to […] 29 March, 2019 Silk Street is a popular shopping market in the middle of Beijing. Home to thousands of vendors, it attracts a lot of tourists during the year. Tourists are most impressed by is the huge amount of counterfeited brand items on display. Silk Street is only one example of China’s national counterfeiting problem. Most of Chinese […] 24 January, 2019 Selling of counterfeit products has been around since ancient times. Wherever a market for something existed, you could be sure that someone would produce a fake to earn some profits as well. In fact, a 2015 study by the International Chamber of Commerce found that the global value of counterfeit goods was estimated to be […]
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h2|To get smarter, we are talking to people in the industry to understand their pains and gains. 
h4|Together with our clients and partners we have gained knowledge and experience on brand protection. Follow us on go get continuous updates on best practices within the industry.
pa|CONTACT US 28 June, 2019 When one thinks of counterfeit items, the obvious items such as branded luxury articles come straight to mind. Less known counterfeit items include fake food stuffs, and to a much lesser extent, consumers are not fully aware of the growing industry of counterfeit transport related products. Such fake products are less common when compared to other counterfeit items, but they can have considerable impacts on the consumers, especially in terms of their safety and loss of income. The increasing number of fake travel tickets, counterfeit expensive cars and knock off car parts, cheaper manufacturing in Third World countries and the popularity of the online deep web is making this illicit industry boom.
st|Not so luxurious cars Free airline tickets, but no planes Unexpected fake train tickets Unsafe car parts Consumer education about their rights is important
h1|Transported by fakes.
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sp|Most people dream of owning a luxury car at least once in their lifetime. Unlike most other luxury products such as watches, clothes, and accessories, expensive cars are not something that consumers on an average income can purchase multiple times. As such, it would be quite devastating to realise that some consumer may actually be buying a supposed luxury car that was created using cheaper parts. This scenario is common across parts of Europe, such as a recent raid by Spanish police that arrested three individual caught manufacturing and selling fake Ferraris, Aston Martins, and Lamborghini sports cars that were assembled with Toyota parts. The problem with such fake sports cars is that they can fetch a pretty decent price when sold online, so consumers can be easily duped into purchasing them when they see a convincing photograph on their screen. As with most counterfeit luxury items, the devil is in the detail, and the same can be said when buying a Lamborghini or Ferrari. Travelling on an airplane is no longer the commodity that it used to be a couple of decades ago. With factors such as low cost airlines, freedom of movement between EU Member States, and easier VISA programmes, passengers are travelling more frequently by plane. And despite the fact that travelers today are more in tune with how airlines operate, there are still a lot of scams that involve airline tickets going around. In their most basic form, some companies might offer counterfeited airline tickets with the aim of making potential victims pay some kind of deposit or insurance. In some cases , fake airline tickets have been used by cyber criminals as a means of phishing information from their victim’s devices. There have also been cases reported in the US that indicate that travel agencies had been used discounted travel tickets as a hook to attract new customers to their businesses! A recent investigation conducted by the BBC has reported that a number of forged rail tickets were being sold on the ‘dark web’, and being used at multiple train stations across the UK successfully. These counterfeit tickets actually work, and have been created with the intent of creating a more ‘affordable public service’ to counter expensive train ticket prices. However, there is always the risk that someone starts selling actual fake tickets to consumers, who would end up footing the price for the crime. One of the greatest problems with counterfeit car parts is the risk of safety issues. Many automotive experts argue that it is imperative for drivers to source legitimate spare parts when fixing their cars, and avoiding second hand ones or cheaper versions. This message was recently echoed by Hyundai Motors America , who showcased the potential lethal effect that a fake airbag can have on a passenger. The same can be said for a wide range of important car parts, such as tyres, engine parts, and other safety features. When it comes to counterfeit transport products, retailers and dealers seem to have the upper hand in providing their clients with less than original items. As such, it is important that consumers are educated about their rights so that they know what to expect when buying tickets, vehicles, or spare parts from authorised dealers.
pa|CONTACT US 28 February, 2020 It is understandable that cash-strapped parents will always be on the lookout for the most affordable way of keeping their children happy. The price range of sought-after branded toys can put a financial strain on the average parents’ pocket, so much so that sometimes, going for the black market knock-off may seem like a viable alternative. However, the reality of how these illicit toys are made should be enough to make any parent think twice about purchasing them for their kids. Apart from the more immediate concern of these toys being easy to break, the lack of regulation that characterises the production of counterfeit goods also means they are made without any concern for safety – neither for the workers in question, nor for the customers. Buying counterfeit goods can have a number of negative side-effects on the economy, the most important of which being that it can result in massive losses for legitimate businesses. This is most certainly the case in sectors such as clothing, since cheap variants are easy to make and easier to hawk on various illegal black market venues. But when it comes to counterfeit toys, the matter becomes even more sensitive, since the safety of your child also comes into the equation. Because counterfeiters operate with no health and safety – or ethical – safeguards, their products are bound to be more dangerous in many ways. An around Christmastime of 2015 indicates this very clearly, as it reports about how a harmful chemical was found in knock-off toys based on Disney’s popular Maleficent movie. Then there’s also the more basic concern about counterfeit toys being more likely to break easily, potentially resulting in sharp edges that could be harmful to the child. However, there is an even more sinister truth behind the equally valid practical concerns about counterfeit toys. The fact remains that these items, though innocuous at first glance, form part of a wider network of criminal operations that profit from the production and distribution of counterfeit goods. In fact, (link opens PDF file) revealed that those trafficking in counterfeit goods often have direct links to some of the most powerful criminal organisations around the world, ominous names like the Camorra and ‘Ndrangheta (Europe and America) and the Triads in Asia flagged as key players in the report. What’s even more worrying is that these operations do not ‘just’ benefit from the ill-begotten gains of counterfeit goods by compromising legitimate industries and profiting from second-rate goods. Worse, criminal organisations usually hide behind the production of such goods to both mask and help finance other shady operations – from drugs to illegal arms dealing – since it is easier to get away with moving seemingly innocuous counterfeit goods than it is to smuggle narcotics or military-grade weaponry. Of course, one can’t expect any of these entities to adhere to high ethical standards. From the big criminal operations even down to the smallest fry among those dealing in counterfeit goods, it should come as no surprise that workers’ rights are pretty low on their list of priorities. As long as the product gets made, these operations won’t hesitate to exploit their workers within an inch of their lives. In fact, the same UNODC report goes on to describe how some of these operations were even found to be exploiting six-year-olds to produce their materials. The bad news is that the unpleasant realities behind the production of counterfeit toys will be very difficult to eradicate altogether. As we have explained, there are vast criminal operations benefiting from the production of counterfeit goods of all kinds, and it is highly unlikely that any individual efforts to clamp down on them will have any long-term impact. The good news, however is that there are simple ways of identifying counterfeit toys by customers that should – at the very least – prevent any direct harm from coming to their children. A few telltale signs should be enough to alert you on whether a given product is counterfeit or not. First of all, if the toy is marked with a brand that looks suspiciously like a popular brand but does not quite cut it, it’s best to just avoid it. Same if the toy resembles a popular children’s character but comes with some altered distinguishing features. Also, if the package carries no clear contact details for the company, then it’s almost certain that it was made in a hard-to-trace counterfeit factory. Using these simple guidelines should, at the very least, help you to avoid the immediate negative effects of counterfeit toys for you and your child.
st|The danger is real The bad guys are the ones that benefit The human cost is high How to guard against counterfeit toys
h1|Who is manning the machine that made your kid’s newest toy?
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pa|CONTACT US 29 March, 2019 Silk Street is a popular shopping market in the middle of Beijing. Home to thousands of vendors, it attracts a lot of tourists during the year. Tourists are most impressed by is the huge amount of counterfeited brand items on display. Silk Street is only one example of China’s national counterfeiting problem. Most of Chinese counterfeiting happens online, even on reputable websites. The country is well known for leading the world in the amount of counterfeited goods it produces annually. According to the World Customs Organisation (WCO), around 75% of counterfeit products seized worldwide between 2008 and 2010 were manufactured in East Asia, primarily China, In the U.S, it was even worse. In the same years of 2008-2010, 87% of the value of counterfeit goods seized by customs officers were from China. The report suggests that around $25 billion worth of counterfeit goods are imported into Europe and the U.S from Asia, especially China, every year. This means that even more billions are lost from legitimate European and American companies to the counterfeiting trade annually. China has experienced a huge growth in its economy over the past decades. Today, it is the world’s leading exporter of manufactured goods with 70% of all of its products being shipped to other countries. As says, because of this a lot of Western companies now have supply chains in China. But, in outsourcing to China a lot of companies are losing control over their supply chains – which gives opportunities for counterfeiting to become a problem. Aside from this, intellectual property (IP) rights and trademark infringement rights in China are almost non-existent. As Tom Doctoroff, author of the book ‘What Chinese Want’, is that Chinese laws have not yet developed in the direction of protecting individual entities. The idea that economic benefits can go to a single brand or company is unpopular. If a man were to open and successfully manage a fake Apple Store in China, in some underdeveloped region, it would be even seen as an example of good business and entrepreneurship since the man is taking advantage of a successful brand and making money off of it. As stated by Mark Turnage, is growing everyday. This is because Western companies which have relocated to China and Chinese companies themselves are very worried about the negative impacts of counterfeiting on their business. If China continues to fight against counterfeiting in this way, it is hopeful that in the future the U.S and Europe will stop losing so much money to it. Until then, it is important for consumers to be careful about what they buy online and from street markets.
st|The Statistics Why China? The Good News
h1|China leads the way in counterfeiting: From fake Apple Stores to fake Guccis.
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pa|CONTACT US 24 January, 2019 Selling of counterfeit products has been around since ancient times. Wherever a market for something existed, you could be sure that someone would produce a fake to earn some profits as well. In fact, found that the global value of counterfeit goods was estimated to be around $1.8 trillion. When it comes to online fakes these are rising rapidly each year, with the vast majority of these originating from China. The sale of counterfeits remains a great problem for consumers, the industry, and governments. The rise of the internet has made controlling the sale of these fakes even more difficult, as anyone can open an online channel to promote and sell counterfeit goods in a simple and completely anonymous way. When it comes to the internet, every person can choose to hide their identity from others. As such, sellers can easily trick potential consumers into buying a product that is not real. The process is further facilitated by the fact that these sellers can simply post pictures of the genuine product and pretend that they are selling those. This would be more difficult in a real land-based shop where consumers can feel and look at the product before they buy it. In addition, certain online sellers can take specific measures to make their counterfeit product stores appear higher in search engine listings, which gives the impression that they are as real as the original trademark brand. Sellers using the internet to promote their counterfeit products can reach millions of people at once and from all over the world. And conversely, potential customers can access a seller’s shop with the click of a button. This effectively means that people have a higher chance of buying a counterfeit item from a seller that lives outside of their country without them even knowing it. Such a potential for selling counterfeit products to anyone around the world makes tracking and controlling more difficult for authorities. Another important aspect that needs to be discussed is the use of credit cards to make payments at online stores. Every person that uses the internet to find items to buy will end up using this payment method to purchase them. In fact, credit cards has also become the preferred payment method for retailers, wholesalers, small businesses, and resellers that own a land-based store. As such, it can be said that these individuals are also at risk of buying counterfeit goods, and then passing them on to consumers that do not shop online directly. Despite the fact that counterfeit products have been in existence for a very long time, these have been gaining more attention in recent years. Their negative impacts on consumers, the industries and its workers, and wholesalers and retailers are profound and significant. The internet has managed to provide these counterfeit sellers with a seemingly unlimited market of customers, an easy way of marketing and promoting their fake goods, and a lot of means of avoiding being detected and caught.
st|A question of anonymity Reaching millions of people at once Credit Cards make purchasing easier Conclusion
h1|Why the internet is fuelling the growth of counterfeit products?
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pa|CONTACT US The value of brands to brand owners are both intangible and tangible. Brands enhance the intellectual property rights and the related innovations of the brand owners. Brand reputation can often lead to brand equity resulting in great monetary value while at the same time, building consumer confidence. In recent years, counterfeiting activities have become even more fierce, which have caused harm to brands. Besides damages to brand owners’ intangible and tangible assets, such activities have also become a threat to the global economy and critical infrastructure assets, while risking consumer health and safety. Manufacturers of counterfeiting products are benefit-seeking, which means that they would provide poor working conditions, using child labour, feeding human trafficking and criminal organizations. Brand protection activities therefore are not only meaningful, but essential. By the protection of brands and their related brand reputation/image, sales and revenues are increased, IP assets are also protected, and their consumers’ benefits are eventually protected. There are countless challenges with brand protection. Fundamentally, an universal terminology is missing in the field of brand protection. There are numerous terms meaning for the same thing but one international “brand protection language” would be needed. There are also different practices for doing the same task or meeting the same goal, due to the differences in team setup, the markets or industry. Thus it would be very helpful to align and define similar ways of working. Furthermore, the necessity to share experience and know-how with practitioners is well-aware. Finally, in the new digital era a common terminology is needed for facilitating and simplifying integration between digital platforms within brand protection Of the above reasons, a brand protection standard is necessary, which can be leveraged by brand owners to make their brand protection activities efficient, effective, professional and valuable. ISO/NP 22386 is designed to provide guidelines for brand protection activities, aiming to build unified terminology and activity factors. The ISO/NP 22386 is therefore introduced, so as to propose support on a brand protection strategy and provides guidance to set up measures and to run enforcement actions. It is intended to standardize and simplify the communication between individuals and organizations involved in brand protection activities, in order to make brand protection procedures more effective and efficient. The standard covers the following contents: IP rights registration provides a legal basis for the protection of a brand. . Identify the challenges of brand protection and the Return on Investment (ROI) for measuring the effectiveness of meeting the objectives. . Roles and responsibilities of a brand protection team, its structure and team focus. Align brand protection strategy with overall company strategy and connecting various departments is the first step of setting up everything. Areas to define in strategy and how to think around. . Introduction to Brand protection enforcement. How brand protection related data is stored and how cases are managed. Security of information related to brand protection. The possible adoption of data analysis and intelligence in brand protection activities. Within the ISO organization, there are more than 20 countries who voted YES to the proposal for this standard, and the participating countries include France (AFNOR), Germany (DIN), Japan (JISC), Sweden (SIS), United States, and Canada. The participating experts are from various industries, such as electronics and high-tech machines, and some work with world-famous brands. If you would like to know more about the new ISO standard for brand protection or maybe you would like to participate in the working group please do not hesitate to contact DH Anticounterfeit at .
st|20 January 2021 What the standard will cover? – Foundation of Brand protection. – Set a goal for Brand Protection activities – Building up a brand protection team – Brand protection strategy setup. – Proactive actions and Enforcement – Data storage & case management. – Security & data integrity. – Data analysis & Intelligence. Who is involved?
h1|Why do we need a ISO-standard for brand protection.
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pa|CONTACT US 10 March, 2021 The threat of counterfeit products can impact every industry and product you can imagine – from the software you use on your computer, to the shampoo you use to wash your hair. These products are not only illegal, but in the case of software, they can contain viruses and dangerous codes, and in the case of shampoo, toxic ingredients that can cause nasty side effects. These are just two examples from the threat of counterfeiting, it is up to you to be proactive in knowing how to protect your consumers from the dangers associated with using products that are not the real deal. This is not just an exercise in protecting your brand and your reputation, this is a necessary requirement to ensure the safety of your valued consumers. Whilst this may sound slightly obvious, knowing how to spot counterfeit products and ensuring that your staff do it as well is the first step that you need to master. Many counterfeit products are easy to identify – glaringly erroneous branding, sub quality packaging, prices that are too good to be true – but there are some that do a pretty good job of imitation. Both you and your staff need to be educated on the correct way to address customers that bring questions, or instances of possible counterfeiting to your attention. You need to be able to extract the relevant information, without causing worry or upset to the consumer. Whether it is electronic goods, clothing, jewelry, or something intangible like software or applications, make sure you are always up to date with what counterfeiters are offering so that you can stay one step ahead at all times. When a consumer comes to you with a suspicion that a product may be counterfeit, it is important to firstly reassure them before extracting the information that you need. This is also a good opportunity for you to increase the bond between you and your customer, and to reinforce your brand message. You should be sure to make them aware of your authorised sales channels and your pricing policies, provide them with a list of authorised distributors, and make information such as customer service contacts and any regional product variances readily available to them. You can also consider offering anti-counterfeiting packaging and markings and making your customer base well aware of them. Another method worth considering is publishing information and photographs of counterfeit products, or providing a checklist that will help the consumer ascertain if a product is genuine or not. Reassuring your customers and providing them with all of the the information they need, as well as reiterating that your customer service department is always on hand to advise them will help to increase not only brand loyalty, but their brand confidence as well. Once a consumer has advised you of a potentially counterfeit product, it is your duty to take control of the situation. At this point, the customer should stop interacting with the source of the suspected product and it is your duty to handle it appropriately. After all, they are not an investigator, so asking or advising them to contact the seller could end up with the situation escalating and the client losing faith in you, and the brand. Make sure that you have the processes in place to firstly thank the customer for notifying you, and then to handle the situation swiftly, legally, and appropriately. Once the product has been identified and confirmed as counterfeit, it could be worth notifying your clients of this so as to ensure that they are aware and do not inadvertently purchase from that source. The war on counterfeit products is an ongoing struggle and one that is likely to always be fought in one way or another. To staying on top of things, you must to ensure that you take as many steps as possible to protect yourself, and your customer. Knowing the threats that you face, being able to handle customers that approach you with instances of counterfeit goods, and having the correct process in place to manage the situation are the keys to your success.
st|Make sure you know how to spot counterfeit products Educate and reassure your consumer Take control of any irregularities Concluding section
h1|How To Protect Your Consumers Against Counterfeit Products
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pa|CONTACT US 10 March, 2021 Although most social networks prohibit the sale of counterfeit goods, a quick search of any luxury brand name on any social network brings a plethora of results, and it’s always the same thing: countless advertisements and items for sale, carrying world-renowned trademarks. The most popular social networks for counterfeit goods seems to be Facebook and Instagram. Not only is it illegal to sell these items and use trademarks belonging to other companies, but some buyers might be fooled into believing they are purchasing the real thing. While authentic luxury goods are never sold on social media by default, not all consumers are aware of this fact, and through effective marketing, could be led to believe otherwise. Besides – sale of fake goods is not limited to luxury. Nowadays, any kind of popular brand is at risk of being imitated through mass produced goods hailing mainly from China and Russia, and bracing the explore feed of millions of Instagram users. It’s fairly simple for sellers to start advertising their goods, and if implemented correctly, these goods often spread like wildfire. Counterfeiters can register profiles containing the original brand name – usually a slightly altered version of the brand’s own handle. Next, they will make use of flash sales, promotions, models and all the most popular hashtags to promote their goods as just a few ways fake profiles get attention. With this, fake goods quickly began to appear in users’ search results in big numbers. The most notorious counterfeiters tend to have thousands of followers, either by having obtained them through illegal means or else as a result of their efficient marketing. While well-established social networks such as Facebook and Instagram are popular hubs for counterfeiters, a new phenomenon has come to the fore: fake mobile apps, complete with original names and logos. The best way to avoid falling victim to counterfeiters is to inform yourself of the brand you intend to purchase from, and become acquainted with the way their sell their goods. If their policy states that they only sell from their website and official stores – you know that any other vendors are probably fake. If they have a mobile app to sell their goods, it will most likely be very visible on the homepage of their website. You can follow this link to download their app – and avoid any other app claiming to be this brand. Similarly, you can find companies’ official social media accounts from their website. Look for a verified logo next to their name – available on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Finally, when placing a purchase, make sure to only use secure banking methods, and don’t reveal any sensitive information which seems unnecessary. Counterfeit goods are illegal, and can be seized by customs at any point. However, dealing with counterfeiters could mean more than just having the misfortune of receiving fake goods, or not receiving them at all: sharing personal information with an unsafe app might lead to having your information stolen. In fact, some fake vendors set up shop for the sole purpose of stealing information and money from consumers. Purchasing certain fake goods could even pose a health and safety risk. Popular purchases include dangerous cosmetics, chargers and electronics which do not comply with any health and safety regulations. Cosmetics may contain toxic ingredients while electronics were often found to have poorly configured circuitry. It is clear that no matter the product, counterfeit goods are all over social networks, and purchasing them can result in an array of unwanted consequences.
st|How does it happen? Steps to take The risks involved
h1|What role do social networks play in the counterfeit business?
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sp|Social media has been revolutionary for business, but this comes with an obvious drawback – shady businesses get to benefit, too.
pa|CONTACT US 17 October, 2020
st|Why not Excel? Benefits of moving away from Excel Choosing your ERP What’s the next step?
h1|Is it still efficient to keep track of your brand protection cases using Excel?
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sp|With cases of counterfeiting and fraud becoming more and more prevalent, particularly in large businesses, it is important that your brand is as protected as possible. Technology is progressing all the time and this means that people trying to defraud you have more tools to hand. To counteract this, it is important that your business improves its capacity to protect itself. Therefore, it is vital that you keep track of your brand protection cases in the most efficient way possible. Many companies still rely on Excel spreadsheets to do this, but is it enough now? Whilst there’s nothing inherently wrong with Excel as a tool, unfortunately it leaves itself open to a variety of problems that could compromise your ability to efficiently keep track of your brand protection cases. Firstly, Excel spreadsheets are vulnerable to fraud. They are incredibly easy to manipulate and these manipulations have already resulted in billion-dollar losses. The lack of controls in the setup of the spreadsheets means it’s easier to alter formulas, values or dependencies without noticing until it’s too late. Another problem is that Excel spreadsheets are susceptible to human error. Should any member of staff enter a value incorrectly, it is highly possible that no one could notice and this could have huge repercussions. They are also difficult to troubleshoot or test, which could slow down operations. As a result of these problems, it proves to be obstructive to regulatory compliance. Although it is a cheap and easy option for most businesses, it is often a tool that becomes personalised to the person who created it and therefore this is difficult to move on when your business does. Although the initial costs of setting up an alternative system may be off-putting, eventually the new system will pay for itself. Automated systems also mean that staffing costs are minimised. These new systems ensure that less time is wasted on tasks like reconciling spreadsheets, if they have been changed in separate updates. This will make your working practice and brand protection more streamlined and accurate. You will also cut down on the amount of copy, pasting and manually inputting data, which again saves time and money. Furthermore, you can access all your brand protection cases from different devices and apps. Gone are the days where people work solely from one desktop computer. Having new and improved software means that you can access your brand protection cases from your computer, tablet and mobile So, if you do decide to move away from spreadsheets, you need to choose the correct Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for your business. You can choose to invest in a customised option or ‘out of the box’ option depending on what it will be utilised for. You need to ensure that the option you choose is designed to suite your brand protection needs. It is vital that you uncover what each software vendor offers, so you can make sure that you are offered the most efficient way to keep track of your brand protection cases. As you can see, although there is still a place for Excel spreadsheets in the workplace, it is not always the most efficient way of working, especially when you are dealing with information and data as important as brand protection. Moving over to a new system may have initial financial implications, but when weighing all the factors up, it is the smartest choice. Once the initial outlay is done, you have all the benefits of a system that ensures your work is less vulnerable to fraud and human error.
pa|CONTACT US 5 December, 2020 Looking at legal departments in general, in the absence of case studies on brand protection teams, 65% do not have a clear digital strategy with milestones and due dates. Furthermore, 79% of the legal departments indicate that there is no specific budget for a digital strategy, based on a report from the Nordics (Legal Departments Digital Maturity Benchmark Report 2020 – Wolters Kluwer, Nordic Edition). We are frequently talking to various brand protection teams. They are all strongly focused on defining and implementing a brand protection strategy that will help their business to manage when their products are being counterfeited, often with a rather reactive than proactive approach. Due to the complexity of counterfeiting and the fast and ever-changing landscape of the online and offline markets, brand protection teams need digital capabilities. Digital capabilities are on the one hand determined by the organisation’s digital maturity and the process of successfully integrating day-to-day operations into digital processes, and on the other hand the investment in digital infrastructure, software and apps. Today, it is impossible to imagine a human resource (HR) or a finance department without an efficient digital platform. Even though legal departments have been left behind, the benefits for brand protection going digital are indubitable. Technology is transforming the way we interact and creating a modern digital legal workspace. Almost all brand protection teams agree on the benefits of technology, but some have experienced challenges with implementing new digital solutions, from managing communication with IT, resistance to change in the legal department, building consensus across different geographies and obtaining resources and budget. Based on our conversation with brand protection teams, there is an explicit path that defines the digital maturity of the brand protection team. For each step, teams increase what they can deliver in terms of efficiency, flexibility, scalability, performance and creativity based on technology. Having a clear strategy and adopting digital technology to support the strategy, enables brand protection teams to increase the value that can be delivered in the most efficient way. The ability to adopt digital capabilities is determined by successfully integrating day-to-day operations into digital processes and investing in flexible and scalable technology infrastructure.
li|Brand protection information and communication is handled with classical spreadsheets, email and documents. There is no digital coordination between the parties working together on brand protection (internal teams, local law firms, investigators). Instead, people are working in silos. Brand protection data is stored in a central repository like a generic case management tool. Individual brand protection related digital pilot projects are being initiated without overall coordination and without integration with a common digital infrastructure. Online monitoring is being outsourced to a service provider. A brand protection strategy now also starts to contain a digital strategy. Brand protection teams are starting to gather information on brand protection software platforms to invest in digital capabilities for increased flexibility, scalability and performance. Brand protection teams are coordinating their activities and storing their intelligence in a central cloud platform built for brand protection. All relevant data is shared across the parties in a coherent manner using templates, standard reporting and workflows. Repeatable work of the brand protection team can be automated. Together with data-driven analytics and decision-making legal staff can be free up to tackle more strategic work. With an open brand protection platform, the team can gather data from multiple sources, integrating various brand protection software into a common ecosystem. The brand protection team is investing for greater transparency and flexibility, using big data and augmented analytics to handle complexity and change as well as to further improve their brand protection strategy. Digital transformation has enabled and empowered a creative and agile organisation that quickly can react to changes with new and innovative ways of working. There is no distinction between traditional and digital brand protection activities, the digital is a seamlessly integrated element into everyday operations. Decisions are based on data driven insights from various data sources, moving focus from being reactive to proactive.
st|A successful brand protection strategy must also be accompanied with an efficient digital strategy. Brand protection teams have an opportunity of leveraging data and technology to better connect with stakeholders, streamline legal tasks, and create more intelligent and efficient platforms for collaboration. Data driven decision making can free up legal staff to tackle more strategic work. Digital transformation can effectively improve the delivery of legal services in practical and innovative ways. Steps in brand protection digital maturity. Naturally, brand protection teams lack the expert skills in digital transformation and establishing digital infrastructure to support their brand protection strategy. So to move forward, partner up with professionals with both knowledge and experiences in tech and legal, learn from best practices and proven methods, establish an open technology infrastructure for a high level of flexibility, and finally take an incremental approach: prioritise and move step by step toward your brand protection strategy.
h1|Does your brand protection strategy include digital alignments?
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em|Peter Furby, CEO, DH Anticounterfeit
pa|CONTACT US 9 November, 2020
st|How to represent ROI Create new evaluation methods Centralize you data and make insights Coraline Zhang
h1|How to get desired Return on Investment (ROI) from brand protection.
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sp|High expectations with limited resources are always the biggest challenges that a brand protection team faces. Often we understand our priorities, yet feel powerless to actually take the move obstacle due to budget, time limit, or complexity reasons. Clearly, priority is not the only thing that needs to be considered. Return on investment is perhaps the top consideration of the department head while making every decision. ROI is usually represented as a ratio and is obtained by dividing the net benefits earned from the investment by the cost of the investment. Brand protection teams often translate the seizure value of counterfeiting goods as the net benefits. The cost of investment is usually the sum of internal and external costs. Even this is harshly challenged by business that the seized goods are not necessarily equal to sold genuine goods. There are even more challenging ones that are harder to be translated, for instance, the value of taking down counterfeiting manufacture, or the value of removing a domain that may mislead consumers. Meanwhile, brand protection is not only about preventing loss and damages, it could generate income as well. For instance, when civil litigation brings judgment in favor of the brands, or a settlement is reached between brands and infringer, these can be directly calculated into net benefits. As you may experience already, it is almost impossible to calculate a desired brand protection ROI in general. Instead, it would be more feasible to set up specific evaluation methods on those specific enforcement activities. As those high priority goals we set usually require more attention and resources, it is also worth more to spend effort on measuring them. So why don’t we focus on improving the efficiency of utilizing our resources and try to find what is “small but beautiful”? To give an example, many consumer brands who enforce their rights via customs want to improve the ROI on this particular topic. Then it immediately comes with the following questions: Do you know if you have spent the right amount of training time on the right customs? If the customs are actually improving their performance after your investment? Which customs bring the best result, which one is more active, more accurate on detaining goods which is also identified as counterfeits later on? To be able to answer those questions, the team first has to have a centralized place to obtain case and product-related figures, i.e. among all customs case in the globe, where are these cases reported, how many goods are identified as counterfeits, how many are released, what are the costs of handling them, in the certain time period. Then it becomes possible to calculate the cost and benefits and compare different countries and analyze historical performance, such as finding out which customs reports case very often but the majority of the goods are genuine. Only after being aware of those issues, it is possible to decide a goal for general and regional customs enforcement. Without that a structured way of managing data, there’s not even a foundation to discuss ROI seriously.
em|graduated from Lund University with a master of European business law degree and Chinese bar license. She became an IP specialist focusing on anti-counterfeiting and IP enforcement. She has been working with many world top brands and gained extensive knowledge of SAAS (software as a service) for brand protection.
pa|CONTACT US 28 October, 2020 We are responsible for drafting guidelines in the field of brand protection to support the achievement of ISO 22386, with the vision to give world-class guidelines for the practices, procedures and systems to ensure the quality, safety and efficiency of brand protection. The ISO 22386 provides society, business and professionals with the practical tools that helps ensure that what they develop and produce is fit for purpose. In May 2020 did 23 ISO member countries voted to accept the initiative for a new standard and the project started then. This international standard describes the framework for how to work with brand protection. It is intended to simplify for involved parties to understand both each other and the processes in order to make procedures and results more effective. Counterfeiting is a growing, global problem and to protect its brand, reputation and consumers is an important action for brand owners in order to be responsible – both towards consumers, employees and the society as a whole. This project bring together global experts to create a standard that is adopted the world over. We begin the process with the development of a draft that meets a market need within a specific area. This is then shared for commenting and further discussion. From first proposal to final publication, developing a standard usually takes about 3 years. The project started in May 2020. The project is one of the ISO/TC 292 / Working Group 4 on-going projects.
st|23 countries voted for a new ISO standard Counterfeiting is a serious global problem We are proud to lead
h1|The ISO 22386 Project, guidelines for brand protection and enforcement procedures.
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pa|CONTACT US 21 August, 2020
st|The question of waste Recycling and charity An all-round inconvenience The final stage of an ugly problem
h1|What happens to seized counterfeit goods?
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sp|The damage caused by counterfeit goods to the economy, environment and even perhaps our overall quality of life should be something of a given for most people. Perhaps Intellectual Property rights-holders are those most likely to feel the true pinch of this rogue industry, but when one considers the big picture it becomes clear that everyone is liable to be affected by counterfeiting and piracy. Starting with the consumers themselves, who will have been duped into buying low-quality and even perhaps potentially dangerous products, the rot continues to spread to the production line itself, where sweatshop workers will be toiling away with no regulation or insurance protecting them – all to deliver illegal, sub-standard products. But even after one considers the realities of the production and distribution of counterfeit products, one needs to also confront what happens after they are in fact seized by the authorities in question. While the efforts put into securing this illegal productionare commendable in themselves, the parameters of these operations also throw various issues and concerns into relief. The environmental concern is often the forgotten strand of the counterfeiting industry. While it tend to, justifiably, point and react towards the crippling commercial effects caused by the systematic counterfeiting of products, and while we should also consider its overall impact on the consumer, the environment is also another loser in this equation. This is the case for a number of reasons, chief of which is the counterfeiting operations themselves. Naturally, such rogue operations are under no pressure to conform to environmental standards, and so the mark they leave on our planet is both expensive and indelible. Ironically enough, anti-counterfeiting agencies have to face up to the same realities when it comes to the disposing of the materials that they have seized. The traditional way of doing things would have the authorities simply incinerating or otherwise destroying the products in question, which of course has its own environmental costs. But there are other ways of dealing with this problem that do not cause environmental damage, and that may yield more positive results in the longer term. Indeed, the logical step forward that anti-counterfeiting agencies and other relevant authorities should be pursuing would, first of all, prioritise the recycling of seized materials. Giving the products away to relevant charities is also another potentially productive way of dealing with the problem (although defective and dangerous materials would still need to be ferreted out). Putting in the manpower and organisational efforts necessary to ensure that the illegal production captured’ by authorities does not harm the environment is surely a step forward in that direction, whichever way one approaches the matter. Of course, precisely because this requires a degree of political goodwill and all-round effort, the challenges become manifold. How much money are governments willing to put into a consistent effort to combat waste management associated with the disposal of counterfeit goods? What kind of diplomatic agreements would need to be signed and seen to for this to be effective on a grander scale, given how counterfeiting operations also tend to thrive by means of international networks? All of these questions deserve an answer, but these are unlikely to be forthcoming before the authorities and legislative bodies in question get around to putting in the necessary work. Like ‘leftover’ materials of all kinds, seized counterfeit products represent an inconvenience that we would rather sweep under the rug. But this will of course not solve the underlying problem, which will remain there, festering. Beyond the real environmental concerns outlined above, there is also the matter of how the original rights holder (i.e., the person, business or commercial body whose work is being plagiarised and pirated) is affected by the process. Due to the legal tangle that comes about when counterfeit products are seized, another issue crops up: who has to pay up for the resulting mess to be cleaned up? Of course, it does not make sense for the original rights holder, already victimised by the act of counterfeiting, to bear any of the brunt at this stage. In response to this, various governments have been drafting laws in an attempt to find an equitable solution to this issue. It stands as yet another example of how counterfeiting creates a negative ripple effect. In the end, the realities intertwined with the disposal of counterfeit products, and their inherent problems, can all be considered as yet another stage – perhaps the final stage – of the toxic behemoth that is the counterfeiting industry. While seizure is a logical response to counterfeiting, and can serve as an active deterrent to future counterfeiting efforts, seized products remain intact, material objects that require either storage or destruction – with both having implications on our environment and living standards. Concerted and wide-ranging political goodwill is what is necessary for a viable solution to the problem to show itself.