COUNTERFEITS
Educating the Marketplace
Yesterday, counsel at two of the world’s largest consumer goods companies and a global safety certification firm told attendees why education for consumers, stakeholders, and the supply chain is crucial for tackling online counterfeits. Alex Baldwin reports.
The explosive expansion of e-commerce has opened doors for many small businesses to find a larger consumer base, but it has also made it easier than ever for bad actors to get their counterfeit products into the market to dupe unaware customers.
Concern intensified with the onset and duration of COVID-19 and the well-reported increase in counterfeit facemasks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) as well as scarce everyday household products.
With both the public and companies at risk, consumer goods giants such as 3M Company (US) and Procter & Gamble (P&G) (US) had to act briskly to intensify their crackdown on counterfeits as online transactions not only reached an all-time high but became the norm as a result of the pandemic.
At yesterday’s Educating the Marketplace About the Dangers of Counterfeits: Ideal World versus the Real World, representatives from 3M, P&G, and safety certifier Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) (US) spoke with panel moderator Sara Ashby, partner at Wiggin LLP (UK) about how to effectively educate customers, vendors, government officials, and other stakeholders about the intensifying fight against online counterfeits.
“We ensure our information is secure and that counterfeiters do not have access to sensitive information.”
Kamal Sharma, Procter & Gamble (India)
Anticounterfeiting Campaigns
In 2019, UL launched a consumer-facing safety campaign, “Be Safe Buy Real,” designed to raise awareness among the general public, governments, and industry about the health and safety risks of counterfeiting. Focused on consumer safety, human health, digital safety, and home safety, the campaign was a rousing success, reaching more than six million people in its first year.
In addition, “We converted some of the people who were interested in the campaign into ambassadors who are committing to sharing our posts and information online,” said Monica Mena, director, Education & Outreach at UL (US).
“But we couldn’t do it alone. We had to locate partners that were willing to share information with us,” she said.
To date, UL has partnered with 32 organizations worldwide, including brands and governments.
To educate global law enforcement and raise awareness about IP crime, UL and INTERPOL work together to deliver the International IP Crime Investigators College. This online platform provides anti-counterfeiting training materials and e-learning courses that educate global law enforcement and stakeholder groups how to effectively combat transnational IP crime.
“As of two weeks ago, we have seized more than 55 million counterfeit respirators.”
Colette Durst, 3M Company (US)
COVID-19 Case Study
As one of the largest manufacturers of PPE, 3M confronts counterfeits that could pose very real harm to consumers.
This became extremely evident in the increasing reports of counterfeiting and fraud involving 3M respirators throughout the pandemic.
The company issued a counterfeit alert to its customers, outlining the products that were being counterfeited and how consumers could check specific lot codes found in the masks to identify whether their model was legitimate.
Colette Durst, vice president and chief trademark counsel, 3M Company (US), noted that the company “very carefully tracks” all lot codes that it knows are compromised or found during raids in China, Vietnam, or other locations.
The company then provides that information to consumers so they can be confident in their purchases.
“We give them a resource so they can reach out to our fraud unit, and it can help them identify whether or not they should purchase the product,” she said.
Collaboration is crucial in fighting the counterfeiting war. In addition to focusing on educating consumers, stakeholders, and its supply chain, 3M has been working alongside law enforcement, government agencies, Customs, and outside counsel, to name a few, Ms. Durst said.
The company’s joint efforts with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, for example, resulted in the seizure of more than 11 million counterfeit N95 masks in February 2021, gaining widespread media coverage.
As of two weeks ago, Ms. Durst said, the company had seized more than 55 million counterfeit respirators through collaboration with law enforcement, outside counsel, Customs, and other stakeholders.
She added: “It is very important to tell these stories, and to collaborate with the media in telling the stories and protecting consumers.”
“We converted some of the people who were interested in the campaign into ambassadors who are committing to sharing our posts and information online. But we couldn’t do it alone.”
Monica Mena, Education & Outreach at UL (US)
P&G’s Three-Step Plan
P&G, one of the largest global consumer goods conglomerates, supplying millions of household products to consumers worldwide, has adopted a three-step process to help stop the producers and suppliers of infringing goods.
Kamal Sharma, senior counsel, Global Brand Protection at Procter & Gamble (India), said: “P&G invests heavily in making our products more difficult to copy. We develop innovative solutions at product inception and design with a specific focus on high-risk brands and high-risk countries.”
P&G’s main goal is to “frustrate” counterfeiters, but with the ubiquitous nature of its goods, the company cannot achieve this without the cooperation of others.
Its second strategy is “enabling and engaging” with third parties, Mr. Kamal said.
“We secure our own supply chain. We ensure our information is secure and that counterfeiters do not have access to sensitive information that would make it easier to copy our products,” he explained. “We partner with our distributors to fight counterfeits. We educate wholesalers and retailers, and we also empower those retailers to detect fakes.”
The final step is to “attack” the counterfeiter’s supply chain in an “end-to-end and strategic manner,” Mr Kamal said.
“When the fake manufacturing facility is annulled, the objective then becomes to frustrate other elements of the counterfeiter’s supply chain. We ensure counterfeit inventory is destroyed, and we go beyond filing the regular notice and takedown requests.”
Advice for Small Businesses
While these approaches have proved effective for larger companies, smaller brand owners who have just started developing an anticounterfeiting program will not have access to the same resources to effectively shut down counterfeit operations.
When Ms. Ashby asked what small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can do in this situation, Ms. Durst offered a three-pronged approach.
“They should start with making sure they have a trademark registration. Stage one, get your mark registered in key markets, especially China. Number two, start educating yourself and make sure you are proactive very quickly,” Ms. Durst explained.
“Get started with online enforcement. You may not have the money to hire many of the awesome vendors that do that work, but you can start by doing it yourself, by using outside counsel or engaging with organizations such as INTA and React–The Anti-Counterfeiting Network, which inform SMEs about counterfeiting and what they can do about it.”
Ultimately, Ms. Durst emphasized, “I would go back to education.”
Video courtesy of Envato Elements / AlexeyD
Thursday, November 18, 2021
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