On April 3, 2019, President Trump issued a Memorandum on Combating Trafficking in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods to help manage the federal government’s efforts in targeting the problem. The memorandum targets fake goods trafficking through third-party online marketplaces such as Alibaba, Ebay, and Amazon for example. The memo also targets suppliers, intermediate parties coordinating the sales of goods, and marketplaces offering the goods for sale.
As a practical matter data on counterfeit supply chain is limited at this time; the memo emphasizes the need for additional data to more closely monitor and track the counterfeit supply chain. In this regard, the Commerce Department, Department of Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and other federal agencies have been instructed to issue recommendations regarding fighting counterfeit goods in the American marketplace within 210 days of the Presidential memo’s issuance on April 3, 2019 or by Wednesday, October 30, 2019. Recommendations are to identify the origin of fake goods and recommendations as to certain administrative, legislative, policy, and/or regulatory changes to help stem the issue.
The full text of President Trump’s memorandum can be seen here: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/memorandum-combating-trafficking-counterfeit-pirated-goods/.
Christopher Lackert and Damian Wasserbauer have experience in the areas of protecting companies intellectual property from counterfeits and in establishing company procedures for an effective countermeasure response.
