How to Build an Agile and Cost-Effective Anti-Counterfeiting Strategy: Tips for SMEs, with Philippe Van Eeckhout (Founder & CEO of ContrAtak, Canada & France)

09/28/21 • 25 min

Global sales of counterfeits are growing at a furious 15 percent each year and have reached over US $1.82 trillion in 2020. This represents 3.3 percent of global trade (according to the OECD8), with e-commerce making up more than a quarter of that, according to the Global Brand Counterfeiting Report. The rise of digital channels facilitating the sale and purchase of consumer goods has indeed fueled a rapid increase in the trade of counterfeit products around the world. No retail products seem to be spared: from cosmetics to electronics, clothing and accessories, automotive parts, and even pandemic-related medical supplies. While we usually discuss the issue of counterfeiting in the context of large international groups, often in the luxury sector, with extensive brand portfolios, in practice, smaller brands may also be the targets and victims of this crime – with very high costs, too, for their business in the short and long run.

What are the risks – for the revenue, the business, the brand – associated with counterfeiting as it relates to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? What can be done, realistically, to prevent fakes and to remove them after they appear on the market? What about e-commerce platforms: is counterfeiting a necessary evil?

Our guest is an expert in brand protection and practical anti-counterfeiting strategies especially as they apply to SMEs. Philippe Van Eekhout, a lawyer, is the CEO of ContrAtak, where he develops and implements impactful strategies to overcome counterfeiting- related issues, with a focus on serving SMEs. Prior to founding ContrAtak 15 years ago, he worked for LVMH Fashion Group as its Asia-Pacific anti-counterfeiting coordinator, and for the French company BIC as IP manager.

Every two weeks, on Tuesday, Brand & New gives the floor to inspiring individuals, with a 360-degree vision, to help brand owners, intellectual property lawyers, and marketing and finance professionals (and beyond!) stay curious and agile in an ever-evolving business environment.
This episode of Brand&New is sponsored by Wan Hui Da IP.

Brand & New is a production of the International Trademark Association
Hosted by Audrey Dauvet
Contribution of M. Halle & S. Lagedamond - Music by JD Beats
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT INTA.ORG
To go further:
About Philippe van Eeckhout (link to https://www.linkedin.com/in/contratak/?originalSubdomain=fr and https://www.plass.com/en/expertises/anti-counterfeiting)

Also of interest:

INTA’s 2021 Annual Meeting Virtual+: Enforcement and Anticounterfeiting track (November 17, 2021) (link to www.inta.org/2021AM)

INTA: Addressing the Sale of Counterfeits on the Internet (link to: https://www.inta.org/wp-content/uploads/public-files/advocacy/committee-reports/Addressing_the_Sale_of_Counterfeits_on_the_Internet_June_2021_edit.pdf)

INTA Fact Sheet on Counterfeiting (link to: https://www.inta.org/fact-sheets/counterfeiting-intended-for-a-non-legal-audience/)

INTA: Gen Z Insights: Brands and Counterfeit Products (link to: https://www.inta.org/perspectives/gen-z-insights-brands-and-counterfeit-products/)

INTA Board Adopts Resolutions to Strengthen Anticounterfeiting Enforcement (link to:

Also of interest:

INTA’s 2021 Annual Meeting Virtual+: Enforcement and Anticounterfeiting track (November 17, 2021) (link to www.inta.org/2021AM)

INTA Fact Sheet on Counterfeiting (link to: https://www.inta.org/fact-sheets/counterfeiting-intended-for-a-non-legal-audience/)

INTA: Gen Z Insights: Brands and Counterfeit Products (link to: https://www.inta.org/perspectives/gen-z-insights-brands-and-counterfeit-products/)

INTA Board Adopts Resolutions to Strengthen Anticounterfeiting Enforcement (link to:

Previous Episode

undefined - Insight into the Mindset of the Generation Z Population: Leaving its Mark on the World (with A. Gerosa & C. Smuzynska, initially posted in May 2019)

Insight into the Mindset of the Generation Z Population: Leaving its Mark on the World (with A. Gerosa & C. Smuzynska, initially posted in May 2019)

Today’s episode is dedicated to a generation of people born in the late 90s to early 2000, post-millenials, called Generation Z. This cohort of millions of kids, teens, and young adults, exposed to social media and new techs in their upbringing, shall redefine the relationships with brands in the future. That’s why INTA researched this group, and released a multi-country study, Gen Z Insights: brands and counterfeit products, which explores Gen Z’s relationships with brands and attitudes toward counterfeit products. Brand&New's guests are well-versed in this demographic and others.
Andrea Gerosa is a true entrepreneur, who started working with and for young people 17 years ago. He is the Chief Thinker and Founder of a think tank called Think Young, focused on the young generation and new trends, based in Brussels, Belgium and present in other countries. Andrea also leads a consulting company focused on student housing and other ventures.
Cynthia Smuzynska is IP Counsel at Gilead Sciences, a biotech company of 11.000 people specialized in the development and distribution of innovative therapeutics treating notably HIV and hepatitis, based in San Francisco, California. She helps manage Gilead's trademark portfolio worldwide and is involved in anti-counterfeiting efforts. She was before in private practice, at Cooley LLP.
Every two weeks, on Tuesday, Brand & New gives the floor to inspiring individuals, with a 360-degree vision, to help brand owners, intellectual property lawyers, and marketing and finance professionals (and beyond!) stay curious and agile in an ever-evolving business environment.
Brand & New is a production of the International Trademark Association
Hosted by Audrey Dauvet
Contribution of M. Halle & S. Lagedamond - Music by JD Beats
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT INTA.ORG
To go further:

About Andrea Gerosa (link to https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreagerosa/ and https://www.thinkyoung.eu)

About Cynthia Smuzynska (link to https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-smuzynska-06610130/)

Also of interest:
- INTA new attitudinal study "Gen Z Insights: Brands and Counterfeit Products" (link to www.inta.org/impactstudies, http://www.inta.org/Communications/Documents/INTA%20Gen%20Z%20Insights_Global.pdf and https://www.inta.org/INTABulletin/Pages/Gen_Z_Insights_Impact_Study_7408.aspx)
- New York Times Article about Gen Z (link to https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/style/generation-names.html)
- Harvard Business Review Publication about generations X, Y & Z (link to https://hbr.org/2017/08/a-survey-of-19-countries-shows-how-generations-x-y-and-z-are-and-arent-different)
- Pew Research Center Publication about millennials and Gen Z (link to https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/)

Next Episode

undefined - Deep & Dark Web: When the Internet Becomes a Global Minefield (with Andrew Grotto, Director, Program on Geopolitics, Technology and Governance, Stanford Cyber Policy Center at Stanford University, initially posted in July 2020)

Deep & Dark Web: When the Internet Becomes a Global Minefield (with Andrew Grotto, Director, Program on Geopolitics, Technology and Governance, Stanford Cyber Policy Center at Stanford University, initially posted in July 2020)

While the digital age has unleashed huge positive and beneficial opportunities, there are also more controversial, debatable, or even unlawful or harmful innovations. With hidden data breaches, dark web criminality, chatbots trolls, or deep fake impersonations, high technology provides anyone – literally anyone – with many easily accessible effective tools to serve any malicious agenda they may have. In this episode, you will learn more about deep fakes and the “dark web”- the unindexed and anonymous part of the Internet not accessible via standard browsers or search engines. The dark web has built a solid reputation for being an ideal forum for cybercriminals, offering them anonymity and a global platform to plan and launch cyberattacks or more generally carry out illegal activities.
Our guest, Andrew J. Grotto is Director, Program on Geopolitics, Technology and Governance at the Stanford Cyber Policy Center at Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA. Also at Stanford, he is a William J. Perry International Security Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, and a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, with research interests focused on the national security and information technology innovation.
Previously, he was the Senior Director for Cybersecurity Policy at the National Security Council, The White House in both the Obama and Trump Administrations in the United States. He helped shape and drive the implementation of President Obama’s Cybersecurity National Action Plan, and was the principal architect of President Trump’s cybersecurity executive order, “Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure”. His portfolio spanned a wide range of cyber policy issues, and he also coordinated development and execution of technology policy topics with a nexus to cyber policy, such as encryption, surveillance, privacy, and the national security dimensions of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

To go further:
About Andrew Grotto (link to https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-grotto-2534b510a/ and https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/people/andrew-j-grotto)
Also of interest:
- CNN Business, Article from Andrew Grotto "Our Lax Cybersecurity Policies put our Elections and our Data at Risk" (link to https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/31/perspectives/cybersecurity-elections-technology/index.html)
- World Trademark Review: Protecting your Brand in the Depths of the Dark web" (link to https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=4421ece4-dc82-4c82-b3b8-c644a56f6453)
- INTA: Addressing the Sale of Counterfeits on the Internet (link to https://www.inta.org/wp-content/uploads/public-files/advocacy/committee-) reports/Addressing_the_Sale_of_Counterfeits_on_the_Internet_021518.pdf)
- INTA TO-GO: Data Privacy 101—How to Ensure Data Protection and Enhance Brand Value in the Age of Data Privacy (h