Catch All of the Crooks: The Tools You Can Use to Find Infringement Sources
Once you determine that your products are being infringed upon (counterfeited), it is time to take action. Determine how far down the supply chain the products have made it (wholesale, retail, online, eBay, Amazon, Alibaba, etc.) and document all of those outlets.
Once the scope and scale of the issue is determined, it is time to plan your legal strategy with an investigator and legal counsel. The source of the infringing product, which could be a rogue company or just an individual in the supply chain, needs to be isolated and examined when we are talking about diverted/gray market goods.
The most common source of infringing goods is found on the Internet. Online resellers can quickly and cost-effectively set-up an online presence, market their products and transact business anywhere, any time. They can also take steps to privatize their domain registration (WHOIS), so as to not disclose the owners name and their office/warehouse location. They will even make up fake names and information in the ‘About ’ portions of their Websites to further mislead buyers and those trying to protect their IP.
6 ways to uncover the source?
- Piercing privatized domain registrations via established methods and resources.
- Undercover buy and trace.
- Search of historical domain name ownership records.
- Discreet calls and emails to the infringer
- Advanced database research (commercial databases that only investigators have access to)
- PIERS (import/export records) searches
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