Brand Protection and Anti-Counterfeiting

Overview.

In today's global marketplace, protecting your brand from counterfeiters and unauthorised use is crucial to maintaining its integrity and ensuring the trust of your customers. Counterfeiting not only harms businesses financially but also erodes consumer confidence and poses serious risks to public health and safety. That's why it's essential to have a robust brand protection strategy in place.

How we can help.

Online & e-commerce - Our work encompasses both local in-market expertise and global online services. We advise corporations on a holistic basis covering the web, social media, domains, and e-commerce strategies at a global level. Firstly, we specialise in e-commerce enforcement in relation to counterfeit goods in a number of regions. This involves “on-platform” services, from notice & takedown to e-commerce marketplace engagement. Secondly, we provide off-platform services, conducting analysis and effective offline enforcement to deal with the issue at source – targeting the infringing producers, merchants, and traders in the brick-and-mortar world.

Customs protection - Rouse takes a targeted and strategic “less is more” approach to Customs recordals, national and port level training, shipment tracking, Customs engagement (especially to improve results), counterfeit goods seizures, and follow-on lawsuits. We have specialist teams covering China, SE Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

Raids against larger infringers are a critical part of enforcement, and an effective programme creates real deterrence. Ensuring proper procedures are followed, goods seized, evidence secured, and if appropriate arrests made has been a core Rouse service since 1990. If not correctly managed, raids are an anti-bribery & anti-corruption (ABAC) risk in many developing countries. Rouse takes a compliant-only approach. Lack of deterrence from a raid is the key challenge; we advocate securing follow-on criminal prosecutions. Administrative or criminal solutions vary between countries and our global experience allows clients to choose the best solutions.

Criminal cases - the primary goal of enforcement is to seek deterrent penalties. Following raids, typically there is a criminal investigation and some countries require IP firms’ involvement. Then the case reaches prosecution and countries vary the amount of work involved, and some offer options for adding on civil claims.

Practical self-help - Rouse’s extensive experience overcoming enforcement challenges gives a suite of options to our clients. These include warning programs in retail malls, knock-and-talk strategies, warning letters, and alternate regulatory complaints, especially in sectors like pharma, chemical, and agrochem.

Civil action - against fixed targets with Rouse’s Disputes legal team. Investigations and enforcement often create the possibility of damage recovery or at least settlements. Rouse’s integrated service approach enables our Disputes lawyers to pick up enforcement cases for civil action seamlessly, to add additional deterrence, obtain precedents, and claim damages.

International brand protection enforcement - Rouse began in the 1990s by building and managing programs via our own offices and select third-party investigation and enforcement firms. Our strategies include prioritizing source vs destination markets, budget management, and benchmarking. Our Chorus enforcement database enables clients to manage programs globally. We are regularly called in on a consulting basis to review other programs for effectiveness, compliance, and other goals.

Our track record.

Successful raids against infringers in the Philippines for a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices.

Rouse represented this client in its biggest-ever raid in the Philippines. Rouse completed an investigation against 19 targets, and raided 8 selected targets on the same day, seizing almost 13,600 counterfeit phone accessories and more than 30,000 counterfeit packaging in 5 locations. This sent a strong deterrent message to the local counterfeit network. The total value of seized goods was approximately USD 275,000 and was the largest enforcement case for the client outside of China.

Helping a major MNC client measure the impact and success of its global anti-counterfeiting programme. 

A brand protection team within a major MNC wanted better metrics to internally communicate their activities, outcomes, and impact of their global anti-counterfeiting programmes. We were asked to update their existing KPIs to facilitate these discussions, especially at the Board level. We conducted interviews with brand protection team members in all key regions to better understand commercial ambitions and threats across different business units and product categories. To inform our recommendations, we reviewed their current approach and the needs of the internal audience. We developed metrics that incorporated a greater diversity of data, including softer measurements such as the impact of policy lobbying. We prepared presentation materials to be used to secure buy-in from internal stakeholders for the new KPIs. For the first time, our client had one consistent measurement system for their anti-counterfeiting activity across the business. In addition, the board was able to get a much more holistic picture of the full impact of the company’s anti-counterfeiting activity and associated risk management.