ANTI-COUNTERFEITING
SINKING THE COUNTERFEIT SHIP: THE RESPONSE OF BRAND OWNERS AND ONLINE RETAILERS
The fi ght against online pirates has many fronts, involving internet service providers, payment enablers and law
enforcement as well as brand owners.
Roxana Sullivan reports. A
s in the game Battleship, brand owners cannot see their counterfeiting opponents online. T ey must blindly target, ‘shoot’,
and then see if they hit their mark. Unlike the game, in which each ship has a fi xed location, online counterfeiters can quickly switch operations to a new website or diff erent account once they have been identifi ed. T is switch can happen in days or even hours.
With the fast-paced growth of e-commerce, the availability of counterfeit goods continues to grow to ever higher levels. T e International Chamber of Commerce estimates that, by 2015, $1.7 trillion of counterfeit goods will have infi ltrated international markets. T e International AntiCounterfeiting
Coalition
(IACC) reports that in the fi scal year 2012, the US Department of Homeland Security seized counterfeit goods valued at more than $1.25 billion in the US alone; this includes products from electronics and luxury goods to baby food, pharmaceuticals and car parts.
38 World Intellectual Property Review Annual 2014
T e anonymity and fl uidity of the internet enable counterfeiters to trick consumers into thinking that they are buying legitimate goods when, in fact, they are fakes. Many consumers are duped by pictures of legitimate products, but what they really order and receive from these online marketplaces are inferior, counterfeit items. Enforcement on these actions is oſt en patchy and, because of the fl uidity with which accounts are moved, ineff ective. For brand owners, it is as though the Battleship board is tilted in the counterfeiters’ favour.
As a result, the fi ght against online counterfeiters has many fronts. Some payment service providers (PSPs) have adopted policies and procedures that discourage the sale of counterfeit goods by disabling payment options to those known to sell counterfeit products. T ey also work with local law enforcement agencies to identify those under investigation. When law enforcement is not involved, PSPs will sometimes work with IP rights holders and provide email address and ‘steps to address‘ notices.
www.worldipreview.com
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