Product Counterfeiting & Illicit Markets

Communicating internally about the important role of brand protection and what the enterprise must do to protect itself from counterfeits is one of the greatest challenges for brand protection programs. This chapter discusses the importance of using communication effectively to create an organizational culture that values and elevates brand protection across all levels of the organization. An analysis of organizational functions and tactics that brand protection experts recommend is reviewed using a persuasive communication lens. This chapter then offers suggestions…

We apply concepts from the Cost of Quality (CoQ) literature to brand protection and product counterfeiting and use these concepts to provide insights into the nature of anti-counterfeiting investments and the returns to these investments. We start by describing the evolution of the CoQ model and contribute further to this model by incorporating additional cost characteristics. We then apply CoQ concepts to counterfeiting to better understand how firms can invest in anti-counterfeiting and dynamically assess their return to such investments.…

As brand owners deploy resources for brand protection, they seek to understand their return on investment and how to make their investments more effective. We investigate how firms measure their return on investment (ROI) in brand protection and consider alternatives to ROI that they might use. We interviewed brand protection professionals from ten firms in three broad industry categories: microelectronics and computer products; food, agricultural, and pharmaceutical products; and apparel, consumer, and luxury products. Because previous research on this topic…

This chapter reviews the lessons that researchers and practitioners offer regarding the total business solution to brand protection. It revisits each of the six tenets: identifying the infringer as the unseen competitor; prioritizing prevention, proactivity, and strategy; integrating controls and mechanisms for detecting and responding to infringements; maximizing data, metrics, and analysis to assess and mitigate risk and gauge performance; formulating and executing a holistic approach that integrates and coordinates all parts of the firm for brand protection; and creating…

Firms may employ different approaches to protect their products. Previous research has typologized the tactics that firms might use in differing ways; among these have been tactics associated with individual products, those undertaken with partners, and whether a tactic is internally or externally focused. Yet there has been no systematic consideration of all the tactics firms might employ in protecting their brands. This research seeks to identify all the tactics that firms might use in a total business solution to…

This work seeks to help firms that wish to organize for brand protection: specifically, to combat product counterfeiting. It presents reasons why firms should organize and how they can do it. It provides an overview of product counterfeiting and how the problem has evolved. Importantly, it presents a framework for assessing the problem and discusses how to implement a total business solution to address it. Read More

Counterfeit products are one of the most significant global risks to intellectual property rights owners. There are many strategies to respond to and prevent counterfeiting. This paper focuses on public awareness regarding counterfeiting and ways to increase it. Read More

Brand protection is most effective when implemented as a total business solution, integrating and coordinating key functions across the enterprise toward a common goal. This article reports on benchmark data from 42 respondents (mostly representing brand-owning firms) that identify the key functions that need to be integrated as well as the specific tactics they can implement. Read More

This proceedings report reviews discussions that occurred as part of the Michigan State University Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection Brand Protection Strategy Summit in October, 2017. Read More