Anti-Counterfeiting Solutions for Today’s Enterprises
Today’s techno savvy world has provided enterprises with a number of opportunities to spread globally. The growth of e-commerce has further paved way for the enterprises to gain a strong web footing. However, these innovations have also paved way for the cyber criminals and counterfeiters to spread their presence globally making the counterfeit products popular. The demand and popularity of the fake products in the market have made counterfeiting as one of the fastest-growing economic crimes prevalent today across all industry verticals. Wikipedia defines counterfeiting as “ the manufacturing and selling of illegal imitation of products, brands, documents, software, works of art, trademarks, patents and even currencies with an intention of deceiving the customers”. The counterfeited goods or 'knock-offs' have a widespread market base. The Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau (CIB) of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has recorded that on a global scale the counterfeit goods make up 5 to 7% of World Trade, amounting to an estimated $700 billion a year. Enterprises thus need to invest in robust anti-counterfeiting solutions. The spread of the Internet and e-commerce has facilitated the selling of a large number of counterfeit products through various online shopping sites. Counterfeit goods have thus become widespread making it difficult to monitor, affecting the enterprises bottom line. The increasing number of high-profile counterfeiting episodes, not only affects the consumers but also has a deep impact on the brands. Enterprises thus need to have a cohesive anti-counterfeiting strategy that works in tandem with the enterprise requirements. With the globalized environment and the counterfeiters being well-equipped and skilled, anti counterfeit solutions from leaders in the industry are no longer just a single division responsibilities but are intelligent, intuitive ones that span the entire enterprise. The solution effectively gauges and measures the actual impact of counterfeiting on a product and its brand reputation. The anti-counterfeiting strategy includes: * Trademark protection the backbone of anti-counterfeiting efforts. The presence of Intellectual Property lawyers either on a contractual basis or in-house fortifies the anti-counterfeiting strategy. * Trade groups are valuable elements of anti-counterfeiting efforts. By working with trade groups that share the same common interests, enterprises can efficiently protect their intellectual property especially in vertical markets. Further, this facilitates enterprises with diverse and cost effective methods to prosecute counterfeiters. * Global monitoring of web commerce with a back-end database which facilitates organizing the collected information into actionable intelligence. All these components go a long way in brand management and brand reputation while ensuring that the quality and reliability standards meet the consumer's expectation levels. The anti-counterfeiting solutions thus help enterprises to withstand competition as well as receive high-returns in revenue.
Read More About: Enterprise Risk Management, Gray Market