In Depth

Brand Protection: The Expanding CSO Portfolio

Security finds itself increasingly entrenched in the brand protection battle against counterfeit good, phishing email and other threats.

By Joan Goodchild, Senior Editor

Page 4

"A lot of counterfeits come in from other countries, such as China. So many companies work with law enforcement authorities to make sure they aware of how to detect fake products and to keep them up to speed on new challenges and trends they are seeing." (See Faked in China for an in-depth look at difficulties dealing with that country.)

And beyond brand integrity, there is the obvious financial loss of counterfeiting, too. Counterfeiting and piracy costs the U.S. economy an estimated $250 billion per year, according to the center, which issues a yearly Intellectual Property Protection and Enforcement Manual. It is essentially a legal guide for companies that includes best practices in place at some organizations when it comes to brand protection and anti-counterfeiting measures and includes a checklist of questions a company can use to assess their risk for counterfeiting. Just about any major brand name is at risk, the manual warns, while it urges all to take precautions.

"Any company with a well-known, valuable brand should assume that its brand is already being counterfeited," it states. "For companies lucky enough not to be victims, it is a question of when, not if."