Counterfeit products are not only illegal and damaging to the company, they can also endanger road safety and are often produced under inhumane conditions. That's why our colleagues in the IP Enforcement unit at Mercedes-Benz are working to put a stop to product piracy.
In doing so, they investigate worldwide - often against organised counterfeiting networks and increasingly in the area of online trading. Lita Silje Jänisch is one of these people. She heads the Global IP Enforcement department at Mercedes-Benz Intellectual Property GmbH & Co. KG. We asked her how she and her team fight against product piracy, and what her daily routine looks like.
Mrs. Jänisch, a brief explanation: What exactly is your daily work about?
Lita Silje Jänisch: Generally speaking, we at IP Enforcement identify and enforce infringements of Mercedes-Benz Group AG's intellectual property worldwide. Our main driver here is to remove counterfeit safety-relevant replacement and service parts from circulation; customer protection is our primary concern. We identify counterfeiters, track down fakes and accompany raids with customs and law enforcement agencies. While the term "counterfeiter" almost sounds harmless, we are often dealing with organized crime and substantial counterfeiting networks - product piracy is a "global business", so to speak, with extremely high profits.
What developments have you observed in recent years? Has the Corona pandemic affected your work?
Lita Silje Jänisch: In general, we have been observing an increasing online trade in counterfeit products for a number of years. It is very clear that the pandemic has accelerated this even further. It has led to customs authorities and courts having had to suspend their work for a while. At the same time, global production and trade in counterfeits, especially through online channels, has reached new heights.
In 2020, we took over 138,000 counterfeit product listings offline! In 2019, the figure was just over 50,000. Of course, we also take a close look at major shopping events, so that we are able to remove as many counterfeits as possible from the network in one fell swoop. But we also keep an eye on social media platforms, and specific accounts and domains. In doing so, we focus on a wide variety of products and also carry out test purchases on a frequent basis. This can add up to several thousand questionable websites per week, which we check and have removed if necessary.