Dear Brand Protection Professionals:
Welcome to 2021 and better things ahead!
For this edition of the BPP, we look at packaging. Along with its traditional role of protecting the products they encase and serving as advertisement of product contents, packaging serves an important purpose in protecting brands against counterfeiting, and in the COVID age, has brought forward some increasing risks (healthcarepackaging.com, 2020). Accordingly, this edition includes several enlightening articles on this subject:
BP Forum discussion is on the most important factor(s) brands should consider in developing packaging for brand protection purposes from panelists in “A Brand’s New World,” Part 2 panel on “Recent Trends in Packaging from Technology to Legal”; an insightful article from a global healthcare products company on destruction practices and recommendations “Waste Destruction – An Integrative Framework Under the Brand Protection Lens”; advice from the Professional Pointer column discussing “The Problem with Patents and the Power of Packaging”; an article from one of our A-CAPP student interns from the MSU School of Packaging who shares observations on counterfeiting and ties to packaging in “The Importance of Brand Protection From the Perspective of a Packaging Student”, accompanied by commentary from Professor Jay Kennedy, and an explanation of the packaging area of study by MSU’s Cimberly Weir “Meet the School of Packaging at Michigan State University: An A-CAPP Center Partner”; and lastly, practitioners have a chance to participate in the conversation with the Temperature Test poll on the input in packaging decisions for brand protection purposes.
Also included in this edition are a number of insightful articles including one by our 2020 Brand Protection Hero, Roy Albiani of Johnson & Johnson in “Combating Counterfeit Medical Devices: A Case Study“; thoughts on the new Biden administration and what this will mean to brand protection specifically in “Is Biden the ‘Brand Protection’ President?”; in the Legislative Update, a discussion of “The Trademark Modernization Act: What Does it Do and Why Should Brand Protection Professionals Care?“; the power and influence of state laws, such as reflected in recent win in the Michigan legislature on airbag safety laws designed to address counterfeits are discussed in “How Honda Encouraged More Than Half of U.S. State and Local Governments to Fight Against Counterfeit Airbags”; an interview with the legal team of a popular consumer brand on how it fights counterfeits in “The ITC Exclusion Order: A Tool in Your Brand Protection Toolbox”; from a “View From the Field: Cyber, Physical and Facebook”; an opinion and guidance piece on legislating social media to protect against counterfeits in “What is Social Media Squatting and is it Time to Legislate?”; the previous Temperature Test poll shows whether BP practitioners are monitoring influencers for threats to their brands; check out the latest in “The Bulletin” and “In the Headlines/What to Watch” and finally, introduction of another new tool developed by A-CAPP available under the resources tab, a comprehensive chart of anti-counterfeiting organizations worldwide.
The BPP’s mission is to provide our readers with relevant material “to advance brand protection through the establishment of an accessible, comprehensive forum containing essential information for the brand protection community.” Please, always feel free to contact me directly at leahevertburks@gmail.com.
Leah Evert-Burks
Editor in Chief & Industry Fellow
Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection
Michigan State University
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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 2021 | VOLUME 6 NUMBER 1
COPYRIGHT 2021 MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES