FROM THE EDITOR
Dear Brand Protection Professionals:
Welcome back! This 7th edition of the BPP remains dedicated to the mission of providing relevant insights and valuable research for our community. In this edition we expand that relevance in an effort to provide a more expansive resource of information. In our Cover Story topic, “Let’s Talk Leaks,” we offer two important views of protections and risk mitigation for IP related to product innovations and trade secrets. U.S. Government attorneys provide their views and guidance in “Where Can Brand Owners Find the Undiscovered Leaks of their Trade Secrets? Its Academic” with Qualcomm security professionals providing their thoughts in “Mitigating the Risk of IP and Confidential Information Leaks”.
The View from the Field speaks to the building of a consumer anti-counterfeiting education webpage while the BP Forum shares experiences and insights from the 2017 holiday season. Our first Legislative Update column reviews the Trump administration’s first year and what brand protection issues to watch in 2018. Our Temperature Test poll is revealing on the consideration and use of certain security technologies. This edition’s Professional Pointers column is authored by Alastair Gray of Tommy Hilfiger and lends a step-by-step instruction on utilizing reverse image searches to find counterfeiters.
Other articles in this edition answer pertinent questions such as, “Do You Need to Hire an Investigator? A Decision Process-and What to Do if You Do” and “Did You Know? About the Public-Private Analytic Exchange Program and Intellectual Property Theft?” We also take a look at state-level anti-counterfeiting statutes, highlighting New York. The edition is rounded out by NCFTA’s contribution of a “Counterfeit Website Gallery of Shame” with summaries of actions taken against these sites.
The BPP strives to provide our readers with an accessible, comprehensive forum containing substantive information for the practice of brand protection. Please 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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THE BRAND PROTECTION PROFESSIONAL |MARCH 2018 | VOLUME 3 NUMBER 1
COPYRIGHT 2018 MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES