LONDON UK APRIL 4th 2011 — Comsec, a division of Commercial Security International a global leader in the prevention, detection and investigation of corporate fraud and intellectual property infringement, have today announced that Roche Diagnostics, the world’s largest biopharmaceutical company, will use its unique investigative software solution - Watchdog  - to monitor and protect their Brand online.

Watchdog simplifies the process of Online brand Protection by automating the time-consuming task of monitoring internet based data sources such as search engines, domain names and auction sites.

John Newbold, Global Head of Retail and Pricing at Roche said: “ Watchdog is a vital and valuable tool in our processes to help brand protection on a global basis. The team at Commercial Security International are very proactive in helping with all our  requests and specific needs. The system is easy to use and has already added significant value to our business” 

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About Roche  

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world’s largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche’s personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2009, Roche had over 80’000 employees worldwide and invested almost 10 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 49.1 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.

About Watchdog

Watchdog allows you to quickly and easily search, filter and analyse data in a reliable and secure environment. The key benefits include:

• An intelligent image detection system that can be used to discover unauthorised sellers and counterfeiters misusing or misrepresenting your images and logo’s

• Interrogates location data, automatically matching address and post/zip code information with an alert function, to let you know when activity is detected in a particular location

• Protects and manages your portfolio of domain names across the internet, enabling your business to minimise the risks associated with maintaining a global web presence

• Provides a full audit trail by automatically gathering intelligence on offending sellers, collecting and storing an evidential package for future legal actions

• A comprehensive reporting package is fully customisable, easily accessible and simple to use.

About Comsec

ComSec is a division of Commercial Security International, founded as a corporate fraud and intellectual property investigation company.  This partnership is unique and enables us to compliment the Watchdog service, with traditional investigations, such as test purchases, surveillance, asset-tracing and other evidence gathering.

 

LONDON UK APRIL 4th 2011 — Comsec, a division of Commercial Security International, a global leader in the prevention, detection and investigation of corporate fraud and intellectual property infringement, has today announced that Barbour, an authentic British brand and recognised world leader for country and lifestyle clothing, will use its unique investigative software solution - Watchdog  - to monitor and protect their brand online.

Watchdog simplifies the process of Online Brand Protection by automating the time-consuming task of monitoring internet based data sources such as search engines, domain names and auction sites.

Brenda Readman-Bell, Group Finance Director at Barbour said: “Protecting the Barbour brand is a top priority. We chose Watchdog because it simplifies the complex issues surrounding online Brand Protection. We are seeing an increasing amount of counterfeit goods entering the market through online auction sites and Watchdog enables us to identify where the problem areas are and allows us to focus resource effectively.”

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About Barbour

• J Barbour & Sons Ltd was founded in 1894 and has always been based in South Shields in the North East of England.  Barbour is a 5^th generation, family owned business.
• Barbour is a leading lifestyle brand manufacturing and retailing wax jackets, waterproof breathable jackets, wools, quilts, shirts, knitwear, trousers and accessories in over 40 countries worldwide.
• Barbour’s customer service is unique – wax jackets can be returned at any time for rewaxing, repairs or alteration.

About Watchdog

Watchdog allows you to quickly and easily search, filter and analyse data in a reliable and secure environment:

• An intelligent image detection system can be used to discover unauthorised sellers and counterfeiters misusing or misrepresenting your images and logo’s

• Interrogates location data, automatically matching address and post/zip code information with an alert function, to let you know when activity is detected in a particular location

• Protects and manages your portfolio of domain names across the internet, enabling your business to minimise the risks associated with maintaining a global web presence

• Provides a full audit trail by automatically gathering intelligence on offending sellers, collecting and storing an evidential package for future legal actions

• A comprehensive reporting package is fully customisable, easily accessible and simple to use. From the complete online landscape, to individual sellers, products and geographies, reports can be quickly generated and exported into most common formats including XML, CSV, MS Word, MS Excel and PDF

Figures compiled by DLA Piper and our on-line intellectual property specialists show the estimated value of counterfeit goods passing through on-line shopping sites in the UK to have doubled in just 3 years and is now over £800 million and is estimated by CSi to exceed £1 billion in the next year. The products most at risk of infringement and typically removed from on-line sites include high fashion and cosmetic items, consumer electronics, vehicle spares and sports goods. But nothing is safe from the counterfeiters. As well as the counterfeiting of brands and trade mark infringements, research also shows that on-line auction sites are fast becoming the market place of choice for the grey marketers. And the internet is not just the electronic version of a car boot sale. Many fraudulent sellers are earning in excess of £20,000 per month trading in bootlegged and counterfeit goods with some top sellers earning in excess of £1 million per annum.

Simon Levine, joint global head of DLA Piper’s technology, media and commercial group commented, ″Counterfeit goods dilute the value of brands, undermine the integrity of auction sites and ultimately cost the UK economy millions of pounds in lost income. But this is not just about protecting brand owners – it’s for the consumer’s benefit also. If you invest your trust and money in a brand you want to know you’re getting the real thing, whether that’s make up and cosmetics or domestic appliances and children’s toys. Buyers most certainly need to beware – you may think you are getting a bargain, but you could be funding organised crime or buying faulty or dangerous goods in the process. “Equally, this is not just a problem for the auction sites to address alone. Consumers need to report illegal or counterfeit trading and copyright owners need to work together with their legal representatives to take more active steps to police their brands on-line.”

James Ramm, Director, CSi said,"We call it E-fencing. Selling stolen, counterfeit or grey market goods. In hard times it's attractive for the buyers, but it's just as dangerous for them as buying something from a stranger in a pub. The quality is often terrible, sometimes dangerously so and there's no comeback. For the manufacturers and owners of the real product it is a serious issue. Their brand value is being eroded by cheap knock-offs. We use some very smart software to track the infringement of brands on-line, scanning both the image and textual descriptions. This is hard edged detective work in cyber space. And when we find illegally offered product, we are in a unique position not to just take the offending advertisements down - we have taken down £35 million worth in just last year - but also to do more conventional detective work, wear out some shoe leather and put together cases for prosecution in the real world."

CSi offer the most effective and comprehensive brand protection services available. Fully automated or integrated with existing systems, CSi's investigative software provides a comprehensive and highly cost effective solution to brand protection problems.

For further information call the investigative team at CSi on 020 7553 7960.

LONDON, February 26 /PRNewswire

Watchdog, a proactive and cost effective monitoring system developed by CSi, automates the time-consuming task of manually monitoring and removing infringing auction listings from a number of trading sites.

Counterfeit goods and brand infringing products appearing on internet auction sites such as ebay, amazon and b2b trade boards such as Alibaba, cause significant financial and negative brand reputation risk in terms of lost revenue, consumer loyalty, sub-standard performance and alarmingly, health and safety issues. All brands are at risk. Popular fashion brands, for example, are an easy target for counterfeiters, as the consumer demand for the latest "must have" attitude outstrips supply. Counterfeiters fill that gap.

Traditionally counterfeit has been associated with the fashion industry but perhaps more alarmingly for the consumer is the targeting of the automotive and electrical industries. Are those cheap brake disks on the auction site really the bargain they appear to be? More often than not these counterfeit goods are being passed off using the brand owner's original images and logos. Assessing where and how your brand is under attack will allow you to allocate resource as cost effectively as possible. Staying on top of this evolving problem requires structured monitoring.

Watchdog Benefits:

• Monitors eBay, amazon, ebid, alibaba and many other trading sites for suspicious and infringing items, 24/7, 365 days a year.
• Automates the time draining manual process of removing infringing items responding to the offending seller with immediate "Cease and Desist" letters and "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" notices.
• Locates international sellers selling into the European Economic Area preventing grey market activity and the loss of revenue such markets cause.
• Gathers intelligence on offending sellers and securely collects and stores an automated evidential package for future legal actions.
• Produces comprehensive management reports highlighting success rates, removal figures, turnover, seller statistics and tracks the progress of response.
• Allows users to establish where auctions originate.
• Searches auction listings for the brand owner's original electronic Images and logos copied from their website preventing passing off sales.
• Recognises authorised sellers ensuring that "bulk de-listings" do not upset legitimate sellers.
• Manages and automates the email obligations under eBay's VeRO notice scheme, as well as responses from offending sellers.
• Demonstrates to offending sellers that proactive action is being taken.