Global Investigation: Counterfeit Products

Infringing products can come from anywhere, but stopping one distribution outlet often means the infringer just pops up elsewhere. Squire Sanders’ intellectual property lawyers demonstrated persistence and savvy in tracking an infringer across several continents when it was discovered that counterfeits of our client’s electronic books were being sold on an Internet auction site in India. Once alerted to the violations of copyrights and trademarks, the auction site quickly shut the auction down. Because the auction site’s administrative procedure required that an intellectual property owner report each individual auction of an infringing product, the only solution appeared to be monitoring the site and reporting each infringement. This is not the most practical option, and even purchasing the item is ineffective detective work because counterfeiters conceal their identities and ship infringing products from anonymous addresses using fictitious names. Instead, we doggedly unraveled the threads without raising the counterfeiters’ suspicion. After months of investigation, tracing data through India, Malaysia and the Philippines, we finally located the infringers, a couple making bootleg CDs in their house in Australia. We sent them a cease-and-desist letter threatening a copyright infringement action under Australian law and in an Australian court, bringing an end to the problem.