In the field of anti-counterfeiting, ALPHINOOR & CO intervenes in the following areas:

• Legal advice
• Investigation
• Counterfeit seizure
• Pre-litigation negotiation
• Infringement action
• Cooperation with Customs

Legal advice

ALPHINOOR & CO provides all types of legal advice related to counterfeiting and all matters related to it.
Thus, we provide you with information on both anti-counterfeiting procedures and legal actions. We also advise you on the methods to assert your rights without legal action: with the preparation of a letter of formal notice prior to an infringement action, or by the execution of a seizure-counterfeiting or advice on cooperation with customs.
Legal advice is given, depending on the fields of activity, either by engineers or by lawyers.

Investigation

Our industrial property investigators have a long history of helping our clients assert their rights in a variety of contexts: marketing, transactions, licensing, tax optimization, financial reporting, regulatory reviews, litigation. To do this, we perform the following tasks :

• Online surveys: comprehensive inventory, monitoring and analysis of distribution sites (ownership of sites, advertising, visibility); sending warning letters to owners, advertisers and search engines (help with de-indexing) ; cooperation with relevant administrations (regulators, customs, police)

• Field investigations: identification of producers and distribution channels, collection of information and evidence, cooperation with the administrations concerned (customs, police, justice)

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  Documentation of fraud: collection of information, documents and testimonies via field investigations and, where possible, technical exploitation of our customers’ information systems

• Location of misappropriated assets

• Judicial exploitation of collected information

• Counterfeiter Profiling: Strengths and Weaknesses

• Documentation of counterfeiting: actual intentions, manoeuvres, support and complicity, offences committed

• Exploitation of information: judicial mobilization and influence

Counterfeit seizure

This is a weapon available to rights holders that is extremely effective in finding evidence of counterfeiting.
It makes it possible to return to the places where a counterfeit seems to be made, to search in the documents of the presumed counterfeiter any element useful for the determination of the counterfeit (production and/or development plan, accounting documents etc.), to seize products alleged to be counterfeit, or to obtain the assistance of law enforcement to secure the cooperation of the alleged counterfeiter.
Seizure is optional, but its use is strongly recommended prior to any litigation.

The counterfeiting seizure must be carried out by a bailiff. However, the bailiff must be accompanied by the agent of the right holder in order to assist him in finding the evidence. This support is essential in order to consolidate a litigation file. Indeed, only the industrial property consultant has a perfect knowledge of the intellectual property titles involved in the litigation. For this purpose, it can very easily determine the essential information to be retrieved in the search for evidence and guide the bailiff’s report in favour of the right holder.

Arbitration

The Code of Civil Procedure imposes an attempt to settle the dispute amicably before the court proceedings are initiated.
In case of failure to demonstrate this attempt at amicable settlement, the judge may impose it in particular by way of a stay to be decided. This phase of pre-competitive negotiations can take several forms, including the form of formal notice.
Moreover, it is important not to neglect the constitution of evidence during this amicable phase. Indeed, this phase must not have the effect of allowing the counterfeiter, for example, to erase the evidence of his crime.
Our lawyers and engineers are fully aware of these issues and support you throughout the pre-litigation phase.

Infringement action
Infringement proceedings are legal proceedings allowing a holder of an industrial property right to exercise his monopoly before the courts.
Traditionally, only a lawyer can act before the courts.
However, legal and technical specificities exist in the field of intellectual property, so much so that a collaboration between industrial property consultant and lawyer makes it possible to significantly improve the chances of success of the infringement action.

For example, in an infringement action involving technical creations, the technical expertise of an industrial property consultant is a considerable asset before the judges, on the one hand to explain the scope of the claims of the patent in question, and on the other hand for the technical interpretation of the product in question.
In the field of trademarks and other distinctive signs, due to our very important expertise on the validity conditions of titles and the application of case law interpretations, we regularly collaborate with lawyers.

Cooperation with Customs

Land, air or sea borders are the point of entry for many counterfeit goods into a territory covered by an industrial property right.
It is crucial to stop counterfeiting as soon as possible and before counterfeit products are released into the market. Customs can be particularly effective allies in stopping counterfeiting.
Indeed, many countries provide for cooperation mechanisms between customs officers and companies with industrial property rights. The ALPHINOOR & CO team is responsible for monitoring your products with customs. We can then identify the entry of counterfeit products into the territory and take the necessary measures to block them.