1 YEAR

One year ago, we launched The Brand Protection Professional to serve as a quarterly resource for reporting on brand protection issues, research, and professional information for in-house brand protection professionals. We aimed to advance brand protection through an accessible, comprehensive forum containing critical information for the brand protection community.

Thanks to contributors from industry, law enforcement, and academia, we have made great strides toward that groundbreaking goal. Our articles have covered brand protection issues around the globe, including in countries where it has been most challenging and evolving efforts within the United States. We have kept readers abreast of how wider changes, including those accompanying the new administration in Washington and the pending “Brexit” in the European Union, are likely to affect brand protection specifically. We have explored new frontiers in the fight against product counterfeiting, including those in virtual marketplaces and innovative efforts in traditional ones. And our regular features such as the BP Forum, Temperature Test, View from the Field, Legislative Update, Professional Pointers, and The Bulletin have provided readers with reliable information on practical issues in the field.

We owe our success to writers in the field who have been willing to share their many insights. These contributors speaking directly to others in the field have helped their colleagues understand how to market brand protection within their organization, organize for the counterfeiting threats they face, mitigate crises that may occur, and partner with others to advance common interests.

We at Michigan State University have been proud leaders of these efforts. They have allowed us to apply our independent and evidence-based approach to these issues in new ways. They have helped us enhance our land-grand mission to integrate sciences, create knowledge, and share lessons. Finally, these efforts have helped us foster partnerships among industry, academia, and government.

We are proud to continue our long and productive partnership with UL in this work. UL has its own excellent record of leadership in safeguarding people, products, places, and supply chains from the threats of product counterfeiting. It uses cutting-edge technology to meet the needs of the field. Like the University, UL develops partnerships with public and private organizations to advance the field and educate others in it.

We hope, of course, to expand upon the successes of the journal in the coming year. You can help us do so by sharing your assessment of and ideas for the journal, or by joining the conversation directly as a writer, forum contributor, or poll participant.

Thanks for your continued support.

Jeremy Wilson

Director and Professor
Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection
Michigan State University

UL would like to congratulate the Brand Protection Professional journal on an impressive inaugural year!

The BPP is serving as a critical platform to facilitate communication and raise awareness among key stakeholders who work to protect their brands and consumers from the health and safety threats of counterfeit products.   It is also helping to bridge the gap between academia and the private sector by acting as a central resource where research, best practices, lessons, and strategies can be shared to support more effective decision-making by brand protection practitioners.

UL has a long history of advancing safety while enabling goods to flow in an increasingly borderless world.  We have been committed to supporting anti-counterfeiting initiatives around the world and have been proud to collaborate with Michigan State University’s Center for Anti-counterfeiting and Product Protection to deliver this worthy resource to those on the front lines of the battle against counterfeiting.

The impressive list of contributors to the Journal in the past year has included academics, brand protection managers, government leaders, law enforcement officials, attorneys and other critical stakeholders.  They all have generously shared their knowledge and potential solutions regarding this global threat with the common understanding that there is power in partnership and in sharing ideas.

As the journal enters its second year, I pose a challenge to all of us to put what we have learned into practice with the goal of staying one step ahead of this transnational crime and keeping the public safe.

Brian Monks

Vice President Chief Security Officer
Global Security and Brand Protection
Underwriters Laboratories UL)


THE BRAND PROTECTION PROFESSIONAL | SEPTEMBER 2017 | VOLUME 2 NUMBER 3
2017 COPYRIGHT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES

RETURN TO ISSUE HOMEPAGE