Online counterfeiting can bring rise to various claims for businesses. These claims include trademark infringement, copyright infringement, or unfair competition. Product diversion can also bring additional claims, such as tort and breach of contract claims. At our law firm, we assist clients with legal issues related to business, technology, and e-commerce transactions.

Our lawyers have been at the forefront of anti-counterfeiting and anti-piracy developments, and have developed modern initiatives now utilized by many other firms and organizations. While many firms focus on litigation alone, The Case Lawyer emphasizes the importance of a mix of litigation and non-litigation alternatives, for a more long-lasting impact with a bigger return on investment.

Our Team endorses a partnership approach to combating counterfeiting and piracy, and we commonly leverage our global network of contacts from major e-commerce sites, social media platforms, payment intermediaries, law enforcement agencies, and rights-holders, to achieve results.

Counterfeits are not a new problem. It has been condemned by almost every government in the world and there are a number of international accords to protect IP internationally.  Despite this, counterfeit products have been gaining more attention in recent years. Its negative impact on consumers, the industries and its workers and wholesalers & retailers are profoundly significant. The driving force behind the explosion of counterfeiting is clear and the widespread use of the internet.

There are many ways to inadvertently violate copyright and patent law.  You may not even know that you are breaking the law. Some activities that many may consider harmless—or at least victimless—can lead to lengthy and expensive court cases, which can become more difficult if you are not represented by an experienced online piracy lawyer.

An example of such an activity, which many people do every day without understanding the legality of the situation, is sharing files on a file-sharing network, even if you have legally purchased the files. Copyright laws may prohibit this kind of activity.

Sometimes these transactions may occur when you unknowingly belong to a pay-for-play or download file-sharing site. You may believe that you are acting in a legal way, especially since you are paying money for the downloads, but it may turn out that you were purchasing music from an illegal file-sharing site. We being an online piracy lawyer can help you understand the law and your rights while planning your defense.

Law provides that the owner of a copyright may apply to the court for an injunction that requires a carriage service to take the steps the court considers reasonable to block an online location that:

• Infringes, or facilitates infringement, of copyright;
• Has the primary purpose or the primary effect of infringing, or facilitating an infringement, of copyright;
• The application may also seek an order that an online search engine provider take such steps as the court considers reasonable so as to not provide a search result that refers users to the online location.

The court may grant the injunction in terms it considers appropriate, including:

(a) requiring the carriage service provider to take reasonable steps to do either or both of the following:
(i) blocking domain names, URLs and IP addresses that provide access to the online location and that are specified in the injunction;
(ii) blocking domain names, URLs and IP addresses that the carriage service provider and the owner of the copyright agree, in writing, have started to provide access to the online location after the injunction is made; and

(b) requiring the online search engine provider to take reasonable steps to do either or both of the following:
(i) not providing search results that include domain names, URLs and IP addresses that provide access to the online location and that are specified in the injunction;
(ii) not providing search results that include domain names, URLs and IP addresses that the online search engine provider and the owner of the copyright agree, in writing, have started to provide access to the online location after the injunction is made.

Once an injunction has been obtained, a copyright holder can block mirror and proxy sites that facilitate digital piracy without the need to return to court.

1. First, the online marketplaces have a level of responsibility of ensuring that items sold in the platforms are authentic and more importantly legal. The problem here though is that the products listed on there are almost innumerable. These marketplaces have become giant and it’s simply unrealistic for them to check every item that gets listed.
2. Next the internet service providers ISPs play a huge role. The primary job in this fight is to deal with websites who get caught acting illegally and who refuse to respond to the complaints by shutting down their websites.
3. The third major player is brand protection services. Their job really is to do the heavy lifting that ISPs and online marketplaces are unable to do. There are the ones who come through online marketplaces and anywhere else that infringing products are sold, finding infringing products and validating their in-authenticity while some companies choose to enforce their own brand protection.