APRIL 2007
Reports from the counterfeiting frontline
Counterfeiting is the scourge of IP owners. But if they are to tackle the problem effectively, they need to understand why people disregard their IP rights and ensure they are using the latest enforcement techniques. MIP provides a guide. Peter Ollier, Emma Barraclough, James Nurton and Shahnaz Mahmud
Counterfeiting is an IP counsel's bad dream. Counterfeiters pay little or no taxes, rarely have to worry about corporate responsibility, and, worse still, they offer cut-price products by free-riding off legitimate IP owners' brand building efforts and R&D dollars. But there are ways of tackling the problem. Over the next 15 pages, MIP profiles some of the techniques being used by companies on the counterfeiting frontline. We profile drugs maker AstraZeneca's efforts to keep its supply chain secure, look at Burberry's successful eBay monitoring programme, and consider the challenges faced by Playboy as it defends one of the world's most iconic marks. A lawyer for sportswear company adidas explains how a radical approach to raids has helped it tackle fakes and manage the supply of parallel traded products, while the head of Hong Kong Customs' IP division describes how the former British colony has been driving fakes from the streets.
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