Anti-Counterfeiting | IP Expertise & Services | Marks & Clerk

Working with us

Customs & Law Enforcement

Protecting your brands and enforcing your rights across the world

Effective anti-counterfeiting strategy that meets your commercial requirements

Counterfeiting activity is costly and can cause severe reputational damage to your brand. The threat is on the increase in consumer and specialist sectors, especially online. Our anti-counterfeiting team can put you in the best possible position to enforce your rights against counterfeiters and protect your brands and ideas internationally.

Expertise in right protection and enforcement

Marks & Clerk has one of the world’s largest groups of professionals in IP right protection and enforcement. We have a large pool of patent attorneys, trade mark attorneys, commercial lawyers and IP litigators, and will carefully select the right people for your business. IP is our sole focus, so you work with real specialists who have given countless businesses – large and small - the expert and comprehensive support they need.

Specialists

for the result you need

Photo: John Ferdinand

John Ferdinand

Partner Registered and Chartered Trade Mark Attorney (UK)

John has over 15 years’ experience in the trade mark profession and works with a portfolio of national and international clients on developing a strategy for their trade mark protection.

Photo: David Kemp

David Kemp

Senior Associate Registered and Chartered Trade Mark Attorney (UK)

David advises on all aspects of UK and international trade mark law and practice in a wide range of sectors, with particular expertise in the medtech, fashion and retail, food and drink and financial services industries.

Photo: Dafydd Bevan

Dafydd Bevan

Partner Solicitor (UK)

Dafydd advises clients on the enforcement and commercialisation of intellectual property. He has particular experience of strategic advice on the litigation and licensing of TMT, electronics and software patents, regularly advising clients on such cases in the High Court and Court of Appeal.

Martin Gutwillinger

Senior Associate Conseil en Propriété Industrielle (Lux), EUIPO Professional Representative

Martin advises domestic and foreign clients on the development of their trade mark portfolios.

Photo: Xuefang Huang

Xuefang Huang

Partner PRC Lawyer, New York Attorney

Xuefang advises on intellectual property law with a focus on all aspects of trade mark law, copyright law and related laws of PRC, including transactional work, disputes, IP due diligence, enforcement of rights, customs recordation, cybersquatting, unfair competition and litigation.

Michael Lin

Partner Ohio Attorney, US Patent Attorney

Michael graduated from the University of California at Berkeley (biochemistry), worked in a biotech laboratory in Silicon Valley, and graduated from Boston University Law School.

We have you covered

Wherever you are in the world and whichever markets you plan to move into

There are anti-counterfeiting experts in our teams in Europe (UK and EU), China and our other office locations across the world. With us, you get a direct comprehensive service across all relevant territories.

Strategic approach

Having an effective anti-counterfeiting strategy that meets your commercial requirements is vital. IAM Patent 1000 describes us as having “a laser like focus on the client’s commercial objectives”. We’ll also make sure your IP portfolio and protection are in the best position to maximise the effectiveness of the strategy.

Ongoing enforcement

We can conduct regular online and physical enforcement activity with customs and law enforcement bodies to combat any issues.

We’ll agree appropriate thresholds and guidelines for taking action in different scenarios to make decision-making as easy as possible for you.

We can work with a variety of alternative fee arrangements in order to give you the best value for your specific situation.

For customs and law enforcement officers

Law enforcement officers play a crucial role in combating counterfeiting activity. We have a dedicated, centralised team routinely handling anti-counterfeiting matters and aim to respond to all law enforcement inquiries received within 2 working days. We can also work to meet deadline requirements for providing evidence where needed - to contact us concerning any suspected counterfeit goods seized please email us on anticounterfeiting@marks-clerk.com.

We are also happy to offer dedicated brand-focused training sessions for customs, law enforcement and Trading Standards officers on request.

Latest Insights

Article

- 12 April 2023

Case study: Copying discontinued products may still constitute unfair competition

The interesting aspect of the case is that products that have since exited the market may still be afforded protection if sufficiently distinctive and popular. This should not only encourage rights holders to be bolder in seeking appropriate remedies under the anti-unfair competition law, but hopefully would-be infringers.

Read more

Article

- 03 April 2023

How do we define "counterfeit"?

I have long been interested in language - from studying two modern foreign languages at A-level, to writing a dissertation at University as part of my Law degree on the topic of "legalese" (comparing the French and English legal languages), and another on the translation and transliteration of trade marks.

Read more

Article

- 31 March 2023

China: copying clothing style may constitute unfair competition

The Guangzhou Internet Court recently made public a decision finding that copying another's clothing style may amount to unfair competition. The case is one of the few cases in China to date where the Law against Unfair Competition has been successfully used to combat the copying of clothing style.

Read more

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