On April 26th, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published its Special 301 Report for 2023, highlighting the variety and severity of challenges faced by intellectual property owners in jurisdictions around the world.
Congress Hits the Ground Running – Focus on Trade, Competitiveness
As expected, the 118th Congress got off to a quick start, with both the House & Senate cognizant of the abbreviated calendar they’re up against this term. With a looming Presidential election in 2024, and primaries less than 12 months away, the new session is likely to be a sprint from start to finish.
Click here to see what we’ve been following during the first quarter of 2023.
Online Initiatives Updates
IACC RogueBlock Program
Last year, we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the IACC RogueBlock Program, which has effectively dismantled and disrupted entire global networks of online counterfeiting activity and terminated thousands of merchant accounts.
Building upon our success and expanding the reach of RogueBlock, we are growing our collaboration with the City of London Police, and EURID to shut down .EU and .UK domains that have been confirmed to have engaged in counterfeiting activities. We will also execute a new partnership with Scam Advisor, a website which helps consumers determine if a website is legitimate or fraudulent, to expand the impact of our actions.
IACC MarketSafe SME Program
In April, we conducted a focus group meeting with craft brands taking part in the IACC MarketSafe Program. This meeting was a follow up to the first focus group meeting held in October 2022, with the goal of addressing industry specific enforcement issues on Alibaba platforms.
The focus group is part of our larger collaborative efforts with Alibaba to engage with product sectors that require a customized approach.
IACC-Amazon Program
We’ve seen a growing number of SMEs participate in and take advantage of our programs and resources.
Today, while large brand participants continue to grow, SMEs now make up roughly 25% of our IACC-Amazon Program participants, reflecting an overall trend in the desire and need by SMEs for operational help in brand protection.
Pilot Program with Lazada
Between October 2022 and February 2023, the IACC partnered with one of Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce platforms, Lazada Group, to pilot a collaborative IP enforcement program.
Those who volunteered to participate in the pilot program worked with a dedicated IACC analyst to report infringing listings from across all six of Lazada’s marketplaces. The pilot provided an expedited notice and take down process along with enhanced communications between the participants and Lazada. Its success was due in part to the mutual effort displayed by its participants, whose input was invaluable to the program’s overall effectiveness. In total, more than 4,500 infringing listings were reported and removed from the Lazada platform, with a near one-hundred percent submission success rate. Moving forward, the IACC will continue to explore future opportunities to work with Lazada Group.
Tips for IP Protection in China - Copyright
(A new section in our SME Brand Protection Toolkit)
We are excited to announce a new section in our SME Brand Protection Toolkit - Tips for IP Protection in China. This new section is provided by Heng Li, Counsel, Senior Analyst at IACC. We will highlight new topics in each Quarterly Newsletter. For this quarter, we are focusing on copyright registration in China.
Copyright in China
Copyright is an automatic right, meaning that the author enjoys the copyright as soon as the original work is created and fixed in a tangible form of expression. Unlike trademark and patent, which are territorial IP rights, copyright of a foreigner is also automatically protected in China through the Berne Convention, provided that the author is from a member state of the Berne Convention.
Our Board Elections took place on Monday, April 3rd and we are pleased to congratulate our board members who were re-elected - Dawn Atlas (Calvin Klein), Scott Gelin (Apple), Tony Zook (Merck) and Cynthia Tregillis (Western Digital).
We also congratulate and welcome our new board member, Wei Zhang from Puma!
Click here to see a full list of our board members.
Highlights from the IACC Annual Conference 2023
We hosted another successful IACC Annual Conference in Nashville with more than 530 attendees from over 45 countries. View our recap here.
Stay tuned for information on next year's conference!
International Women's Day
This year for International Women’s Day, we showcased the causes and organizations in which our Women IP Warriors are passionate. It’s our way to recognize how extraordinary they are and spread awareness of the organizations that matter to them.
To view and register for our upcoming trainings visit our website.
Ad opportunities in our newsletters are available and are limited to IACC members. Bulk pricing available. Contact Dawn Sgarlata at dsgarlata@iacc.org.
TOOLS, RESOURCES & INFORMATION
IP Resources from Our Members
We are excited to include this Resource Section in our Quarterly Newsletter where we share interesting insights, research studies, white papers and other thought pieces from our members around the world. Members interested in submitting relevant material for our next newsletter should contact Dawn Sgarlata at dsgarlata@iacc.org.
Disclaimer: The IACC is providing these links as a courtesy to our members; the IACC has not independently verified any claims or assertions contained therein. Further, the views expressed in each of the linked resources are those of the respective authors, and their inclusion should not be interpreted as an endorsement by the IACC.
Brand owners may be held liable for counterfeit products when unable to prove the provenance or authenticity of fakes versus legitimately produced goods. Legal fees can pile up quickly while product sales may drop due to lack of consumer trust. However, investing in a brand protection strategy from the start can protect companies from unforeseen liability costs and consumer mistrust in emerging or gray markets.
Brand Protection is a crucial aspect that seeks to maintain a brand’s reputation and customer trust. The proliferation of counterfeit goods not only results in lost revenue and reputational damage but also poses a significant threat to consumer safety.
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