In today’s innovation-driven economy, a company’s intellectual property (IP) is more important than ever. Kroll’s IP Risk Management practice provides a comprehensive approach to mitigating and responding to patent infringement, IP theft, counterfeiting and unauthorized gray market diversion. We help companies identify IP threats internally and throughout their supply chain, develop the appropriate mitigation strategies and investigate suspected infringements. When infringements do occur, we use the most sophisticated techniques to establish the valuation of harm inflicted necessary to recover damages.
Our IP Risk Management team draws upon resources from across Kroll’s global network. Our array of investigative capabilities includes gathering intelligence on the dark web and in the field, social network analysis and sample acquisition and testing. Our Cyber Risk experts can track intrusions, data manipulation and a range of “digital footprints,” and our Security Risk Management team can spot deficiencies in security procedures and design remediations. In addition, we have strong working relationships with regulators, police forces and customs and enforcement agencies around the world. Our investigations frequently form the basis of litigation or criminal prosecutions.
Kroll’s IP investigations engagements are customized to meet a variety of needs, including:
An iconic British fashion label discovered that high-quality counterfeit dress shirts and polos from Turkey and China were arriving in high volumes to Europe.
Despite existing proactive enforcement in Europe and Turkey, the client found the counterfeiters always reappeared a few months after being taken offline. It was suspected that former garment contractors were behind the high-quality fakes, but efforts in Turkey to identify the producing factories and key perpetrators had so far failed.
Kroll was engaged to investigate the production facilities and distribution sources. Starting with the client’s existing intelligence and using a variety of methods including controlled purchases, human intelligence, internet investigations and public record data, we mapped the connectivity of a highly-organized counterfeiting supply and distribution network. We profiled and prioritized targets from over 150 involved individuals, companies, websites/domains, emails, social media accounts and telephone numbers.
We discovered that one group in particular created their own fashion labels and registered a series of front companies across Europe to appear as legitimate distributors of their brand, but were using them to conceal counterfeit products from customs checks.
After eight months of investigation across 10 countries including the UK, France, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Peru and Canada, Kroll’s multidisciplinary approach coupled with a coordinated range of civil and criminal enforcement actions resulted in the identification of factories and storage and airport distribution facilities. It also led to several arrests, seizures of high volumes of fake products and severe disruption to the counterfeiters’ capabilities.
Helping clients combat counterfeit goods, gray market sales and unfair competition from untaxed imports.
Helping clients identify the source of a leak so they can respond appropriately.
Providing clients with the facts and insights they need to respond confidently to regulatory issues.
Helping clients determine what happened, how it occurred and who was responsible.
Creating a detailed portrait of a supplier’s financial stability, operations, compliance and culture.