Can You Protect Intellectual Property? with David Cooper

When buying from Amazon, you might think that all products come directly from the manufacturer to Amazon warehouses. But that is not always the case. Learn how to spot potential counterfeit products and protect yourself and your brand on Amazon.

Today's guest is David Cooper. David is the CEO and founder of IPSecure, which is an innovative new way to protect your intellectual property on Amazon, control your sales channel, and ensure every purchase of your product on Amazon is a positive and reputable shopping experience. He has spent 20 years building and deploying brand protection solutions for hundreds of global brands such as the NFL, J&J, Apple, and Rolex.

Show Notes:

• [1:00] - David shares his background and information on his company IPSecure.
• [3:02] - eCommerce is huge, but is still only a fraction of the size of total retail.
• [4:42] - Solutions in this space are almost always legal.
• [6:35] - Finding counterfeiters has no impact but companies tend to measure how many are found. IPSecure measures everyone.
• [9:28] - You can't quantify how much risk was avoided.
• [11:01] - When a counterfeiter is taken down, more pop up.
• [12:30] - Brand protection is something David advises to add for customers.
• [14:12] - There are some universal signs of counterfeit products, but there are also some signs that are specific to Amazon.
• [15:43] - Amazon has a specific algorithm that chooses who sees what products. Check the store's profile.
• [17:32] - It is easy to be deceived on a marketplace site. David illustrates this with a Samsung camera purchase that was a parallel import.
• [19:42] - There is nothing wrong with buying and reselling something, but there is a gray market problem.
• [21:21] - These legal solutions are very expensive.
• [23:02] - Amazon is proactive in some areas, but generally speaking, they do not monitor products belonging to specific brands.
• [24:16] - For most brands, selling on Amazon is necessary.
• [25:19] - Even if a brand pulls out of Amazon, their products are likely still being sold on Amazon and that could be a liability.
• [28:49] - Instead of focusing on taking down other profiles and sellers, IPSecure focuses on building your own brand to be a successful one.
• [30:45] - While challenging, Amazon does more than any other company to help brands with this concern.
• [32:32] - People are much more aware of these concerns as Amazon has grown.
• [34:18] - Congress is taking a look at how Amazon runs, but there have been many distractions from these issues with the current world climate.
• [34:19] - It is very complex with a lot of moving parts. IPSecure integrates well with a lot of different platforms.
• [37:52] - Smaller businesses cannot afford to lose a sale to a counterfeiter and likely cannot hire a lawyer.
• [40:41] - David shares the story of a client whose business exploded after their product was on a reality show. Counterfeiters popped up very quickly.
• [43:33] - As a trademark owner, you are responsible for monitoring.
• [46:12] - Brand protection can actually increase revenue.

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