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Last updated on: June 6, 2023
China produces more counterfeit products than any other country. In fact, counterfeit and pirated goods manufactured in China accounted for 75% of the value of counterfeit goods seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 2021. The sheer scale of counterfeiting in China presents many challenges for businesses operating in the United States.
Counterfeiters undercut legitimate businesses and steal away profits. Counterfeiters also have the potential to damage your customers’ experience and reduce overall consumer trust levels. So, how do you protect your brand and fight these counterfeit manufacturers in China?
In this blog, we’ll be exploring how to fight counterfeit manufacturers by touching on a number of topics, including:
You have to be proactive if you want to succeed against the rise of counterfeit manufacturers in China. Here are a few of the key ways your business can start fighting counterfeiters:
Before you do anything else, you should register your intellectual property (IP) rights in China. This is the easiest and most reliable way to ensure that your content, products, and brand are all safeguarded from counterfeiters and scammers within China.
If you register a trademark, copyright, or patent in China you will then be able to begin to prevent counterfeiting and protect your business’s interests. China, like the United States and many countries in the EU, has signed up to various international intellectual property bodies and treaties such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), World Trade Organization (WTO), the Madrid Protocol, the Paris Convention and the Berne Convention.
These bodies and conventions help to standardize the laws across borders, meaning IPR registration should not be wildly different in China from anywhere else in the world. Nevertheless, there are many unwritten rules and cultural norms that will make the process of registering your IP in China slightly different. Therefore we recommend using a Chinese law firm or a legal service that specializes in Chinese IP law, to manage and execute your Chinese trademark registration, patent registration, or copyright registration process.
If you have been able to identify counterfeits and evidence of their potential wrongdoing, then you can send a cease and desist letter. This type of letter is a standard precursor to legal action.
However, a cease and desist letter can also be used to deter any further counterfeiting and show counterfeiters in China that you are serious about defending your intellectual property. You should seek legal assistance to ensure that you draft a cease and desist letter that effectively states your case, affirms your IP rights, and demands the ceasing of any wrongdoing.
One of the best ways to combat counterfeit manufacturers is by taking robust legal action. Before you take any legal steps it is vital that you are informed and well-supported. If you want to take any legal action against Chinese counterfeiting manufacturers you should first contact a local lawyer who has experience dealing with international brands suing Chinese counterfeit factories.
The last, and perhaps most effective, way to fight counterfeit manufacturers in China is to invest in first-class anti-counterfeiting software. In today’s age, counterfeiting is often a digital issue, conducted by bad actors that operate through scam websites and fraudulent listings they put on numerous online marketplaces.
Therefore, you need to have software that can scan marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, or Alibaba 24/7 to ensure that any counterfeiters can be detected, monitored, and taken down. Then you need a platform with the resources to empower you and guide your business through the process of shutting down counterfeit manufacturers. This is where Red Points’ Anti-counterfeit Solution can help.
Before you can start fighting any counterfeit manufacturers you first have to detect them. With millions of businesses operating online across a variety of marketplaces, it can be difficult to find when and where your counterfeit manufacturers are hiding. Here are a few methods you can use to improve the way you detect whether counterfeits of your products are being manufactured in China:
Test buys are a reliable way to protect your brand from counterfeiters. A test buy is when you purchase a product from a seller that you suspect is involved in distributing counterfeit products. When you test buy counterfeit products you will receive reliable evidence that your IP is in fact being stolen and poorly reproduced by counterfeiters in China. You can then use the evidence you have gathered via test buying to submit IP complaints and take down counterfeit manufacturers from the web.
For most businesses, it is not practical or achievable to physically monitor the presence of counterfeiters in China. Therefore you need to conduct online monitoring if you want to successfully detect counterfeiting. The details of this monitoring will depend on the kind, and prevalence, of the counterfeiting.
You should keep an eye on major marketplaces like AliExpress, Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay where you may have noticed counterfeits of your products before. You should also monitor smaller, third-party websites that specialize in knock-offs and reselling. While this may be time-consuming and costly, it may help you uncover counterfeit manufacturers in China that are using online marketplaces to take advantage of your IP.
The most efficient and cost-effective way to detect if counterfeits of your products are being manufactured in China is to use infringement detection software. Today, smart detection software allows you to be precise and timely in your search for scammers and bad actors.
Detection software will enable you to monitor detected infringements on a granular level, by detecting and categorizing infringers by marketplace, by country, or even by IP address if necessary. This means that you can accurately identify the source of counterfeit products being sold to your customers. This data can also inform you where there is a high demand for those counterfeit products, giving you actionable insights as to where you should register your intellectual property to have the most effective impact.
Red Points’ Anti Counterfeit Solution will help you automatically find and remove counterfeits so that you can protect your customers, brand, and profits.
Our bot-powered search will identify counterfeit listings across marketplaces 24/7. Each search is better than the last because our machine learning system suggests new rules and keyword opportunities, ensuring that there is no hiding place for counterfeit manufacturers in China.
Once we have detected potential counterfeits, we enable you to set up validation rules that will allow the enforcement process to begin instantly. With our high-risk shortlists, you can prioritize the counterfeits that are most damaging to your brand and customers. Then we will enforce on your behalf to ensure that counterfeit listings are taken down and counterfeiters are removed from the relevant marketplaces.
You can measure the impact of your anti-counterfeit coverage within our platform. Here you can benefit from our transparent and insightful reporting system that will allow you to measure many elements of the process such as success rates or the number of detections. You can then use this valuable data to have a clear view of your anti-counterfeiting efforts.
Counterfeit manufacturers in China present massive challenges to legitimate businesses all over the world. The best way to confront these challenges is by identifying the problem as early as possible and proactively implementing methods to combat these counterfeiters.
While there are a few ways to detect and fight counterfeits, in this digital age the most cost-effective and efficient way will involve smart detection and anti-counterfeiting software.
To learn more about how Red Points can help your business fight counterfeit manufacturers in China, request a demo here.
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