FROM THE EDITOR
Dear BPP Subscribers:
Welcome to the 4th issue of our quarterly industry journal dedicated to the brand protection community with a mission of addressing the relevant issues of our practice. As BP practitioners, we experience continual shifts and disruptions in the marketplace of our industries. Today, department stores are closing at a rapid pace, solidifying a change in the behavior of consumer purchasing practices. Such news is a confirmation and not a revelation of longstanding trends, but requires that brands constantly review the impact of these changing patterns. This is no more true than in the practice of brand protection.
In a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “Innovation – Improving Lives” held in April in recognition of the 2017 World Intellectual Rights Day, Matthew Allen, the Acting Assistant Director of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), discussed the issues of online sales when asked about counterfeit threats. See Senate Judiciary Hearing at 52:45 – 55:11 (all testimony can be found at Senate Judiciary Hearing Transcript). The testimony at this hearing confirmed that for many or even most brands the frontier of focus on threat and strategy is in the online space.
Accordingly, in this edition of The Brand Protection Professional, we have dedicated space to online-associated issues. Our Cover Story is Fighting Intellectual Property Crime in a Cyber Era. In A View From The Field, participants discuss the retention of online enforcement resources. The Legislative Update column focuses on The E-commerce Retail Supply Chain. We continue to strive toward meeting our mission of providing an “…accessible, comprehensive forum containing essential information for the brand protection community.” I invite you to join the conversation by submitting an article for publication, participating in the Temperature Test polls or BP Forum, or engaging in a conversation in A View From The Field. Please always feel free to contact me directly at leahevertburks@gmail.com.
Leah Evert-Burks
Managing Editor & Industry Fellow
Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection
Michigan State University
Mission Statement
The Brand Protection Professional: A Practitioner’s Journal (BPP) is a quarterly resource dedicated to reporting on brand protection issues, research and professional information for in-house brand protection practitioners. The BPP aims to advance brand protection through the establishment of an accessible, comprehensive forum containing essential information for the brand protection community.
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Submissions
The BPP encourages submissions from a wide range of experts, so long as the subject of the contribution fits the mission of the journal. Publication decision is in the absolute discretion of the editorial team. View our submission guidelines and author tips for additional details.
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THE BRAND PROTECTION PROFESSIONAL |JUNE 2017 | VOLUME 2 NUMBER 2
COPYRIGHT 2017 MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES