A Powerful ITC Tool For Fighting Counterfeits, Knockoffs

Insights: Publications A Powerful ITC Tool For Fighting Counterfeits, Knockoffs

Law 360

September 22, 2016

Written by Aarti Shah

The owners of popular brands, trademarks and designs have been confronted with a rising tide of counterfeits and knockoffs. The products may be straight counterfeits – products using the trademarked brand names and identical to the legitimate product – or knockoffs, which copy a designer or brand’s style, trade dress, or patented designs without containing logos or brand names but are still so confusingly similar that consumers assume that they are branded products. To fight this, brand and trademark owners are turning to new strategies such as actions under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the Lanham Act, and pulling products from Amazon and other websites.