Designed for both in-house and outside council, the extensive Report provides deep insight into brand owners' anticounterfeiting strategies and resourcing.
NEW YORK, May 7, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The International Trademark Association (INTA) has released its Anticounterfeiting Benchmarking Report to guide and support the anticounterfeiting efforts of its members globally.
Aimed to provide brand owners with a comprehensive understanding of the ever-changing nature of the counterfeit landscape, INTA conducted a benchmarking survey of its global corporate membership. Designed for both in-house and outside council, the extensive Report provides deep insight into brand owners' anticounterfeiting strategies and resourcing. With detailed and accessible facts and figures, the Report provides information on global anticounterfeiting efforts in a structured and visually-engaging manner.
For in-house counsel, brand managers, and other executives in brand-owning companies, the Report is an invaluable resource as they allocate resources to anticounterfeiting activities, and plan and implement their anticounterfeiting strategies.
For law firms and service providers, the Report provides deep insight into how companies are working to address counterfeiting (including allocation of resources and budgets) and working with external resources, and it unveils opportunities to refine service offerings to better suit the needs of brand-owning companies.
Illustrated through personal insights, as well as aggregated data, the Report is also among the first data-driven attempts to quantify the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on counterfeiting and hones in on the impact of the pandemic.
Speaking to audiences with varying degrees of familiarity with the topic, readers from a variety of perspectives will benefit from this Report on how brand owners view and allocate resources to resolve questions such as the scale of counterfeiting, where it is increasing, how to tackle the problem, allocation of resources and budgets, use of external resources, and knowledge gaps in public awareness.
INTA CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo championed the study: "We know counterfeiting is among the top issues for our members and all IP stakeholders. In this data-driven world, INTA is committed to providing accurate and up-to-date information which is vital to our efforts to address what is a scourge that is both criminal and a risk to consumers' well-being."
Benefiting from the extensive knowledge-base of a global and diverse group of organizations, INTA distributed a 48-question survey which was developed and reviewed by the Research Advisory Council, members of the Anticounterfeiting Committee, and INTA staff. Representative of INTA's membership both in terms of industry and geographical spread, 121 in-house legal teams from corporations around the world participated in the survey.
Among the Report findings, highlights include:
- The top concerns identified are counterfeits, lookalikes/copycats, and gray market/parallel imports.
- Counterfeits are becoming an increasingly significant issue, with counterfeiting-related problems increasing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as compared to the near future, for more than 60 percent of companies.
- Respondents identified the economic downturn, the growth of online marketplaces, and direct sales to consumers as among the key reasons for the growing challenge.
- Over 90 percent of respondents said their anticounterfeiting program has been somewhat, moderately, or highly effective over the last five years.
- More than half of respondents say their organization outsources key anticounterfeiting activities.
- The majority of respondents believe they are investing too little of both human resources and money in anticounterfeiting initiatives—yet only 40 percent expect anticounterfeiting investment to increase in the next one to three years.
- About 40 percent of respondents use authentication technology, with marking technologies being the most common type. Only 2 percent use blockchain technology.
Jeremy Newman, Chief Commercial Officer at Rouse (United Kingdom) and Chair of INTA's Research Advisory Council, emphasizes the importance of knowing what questions to ask when brainstorming solutions to combat counterfeiting, whether as a brand owner, a law firm, or a policymaker: "There's no 'one size fits all' solution to combatting counterfeiting, but valuable insights can be gained from an understanding of how other organizations perceive and deal with the threat. This Report provides a snapshot of how brand owners are adapting to a fast-changing environment. We hope it provides a useful resource to stimulate conversations and to help develop future solutions."
The Report is intended to promote information-sharing and increase collaboration between brands across industries as well as globally. David McDonald, Chief Trademark Counsel, Johnson & Johnson (USA) and a member of INTA's Research Advisory Council, notes that "the serious and wide-ranging threats posed by illicit trade make collaboration with other brand owners and key stakeholders absolutely vital."
Learn more and access the Executive Summary and full Report.
Thank you to our sponsors: Wanhuida Intellectual Property (Strategic Sponsor), Lancers Risk Consulting (Gold Sponsor), Lex Orbis Intellectual Property Attorneys and Advocates (Silver Sponsor).
INTA thanks MMR Strategy Group for insightful data analysis and numerous consultations.
About the International Trademark Association
The International Trademark Association (INTA) is a global association of brand owners and professionals dedicated to supporting trademarks and complementary intellectual property (IP) to foster consumer trust, economic growth, and innovation, and committed to building a better society through brands. Members include nearly 6,000 organizations, representing more than 33,500 individuals (trademark owners, professionals, and academics) from 181 countries, who benefit from the Association's global trademark resources, policy development, education and training, and international network. Founded in 1878, INTA is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Beijing, Brussels, Santiago, Singapore, and the Washington, D.C., Metro Area, and representatives in Amman and New Delhi. For more information, visit inta.org.
Media Contact
Elizabeth Bogner, International Trademark Association, 2126421770, [email protected]
SOURCE International Trademark Association
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