Epic Counters Fakes on Social Media
Epic Rights partners with CounterFind to combat counterfeit merchandise and pave the way for online brand protection within the music industry. Its brands include KISS, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, and more.
CounterFind’s software finds all ads marketing counterfeit on sites like Facebook and Instagram, then shuts them down in real time. Human intelligence paired with image recognition and a filtering formula enable the technology to learn counterfeiters’ new marketing tactics as they develop.
The Economist estimated that sports, entertainment, and luxury brands lost over $135 billion dollars in 2010 in lost revenue thanks to the sale of counterfeit goods.
Alibaba Courting High-end Brands
Meanwhile, Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group unveils enhancements to its Intellectual Property Protection platform. The updates allow for cases submitted by rights holders to be resolved within 24 hours, rather than the three- to four-day average time the same process would require last year. According to Alibaba, over 80% of listings are taken down as a result.
The ecommerce company recently partnered with fashion brand Kering, which decided to drop its long-standing legal battle against Alibaba, to form a joint task force that will take action against infringers. The move is similar to an agreement already in place with LVMH (which also dropped a suit), although neither brand, at the time, sold their branded products through Alibaba.
But thanks in part to these efforts at increasing its reputation for brand integrity, Alibaba has signed deals with Gucci and Saint Laurent to sell their brands products directly in China. With these deals as a backbone, Alibaba also managed to launch an invite-only luxury platform selling brands such as Burberry, Hugo Boss, Guerlain, and Zenit.
Most recently, in partnership with Loewe, the ecommerce site launched its new online pop-up store functionality on Tmall, called Tspace. LVMH was the first company to utilize the Tspace marketing tool and hold a 24-hour flash sale for 99 limited edition bags.