@Risk

The US Department of Defense has concerns about counterfeit parts in its supply chain and is now taking additional steps to ensure that its equipment and parts are authentic.

According to the American Forces Press Service, the DOD has implemented a quality assurance process to identify material that doesn’t conform to standards and determine which ones are counterfeit.

For the DOD, most of the problem appears to center on previously used parts sold as new. As Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) explains in a statement:

In some industries, the term “counterfeit” suggests an unauthorized fake, a knock-off of an original product. The definition of counterfeit, as it relates to electronic parts, which has been endorsed by the Department of Defense and defense contractors alike includes both fakes and previously used parts that are made to look new, and are sold as new. Previously used parts sold as new parts present a significant risk because, while they may pass initial screening, they are far more likely than new parts to exhibit reliability and performance problems later on when deployed in the field.

Sen. Levin chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) which this year began an investigation of counterfeit electronic parts in the DOD supply chain. In his statement, made at a SASC hearing last week, he goes on to describe how e-waste is shipped into Chinese cities like Shantou in Guangdong Province where the electronics are disassembled by hand. Then, they undergo a sophisticated unsecured counterfeiting process. Again, from Sen. Levin: (more…)

New research from OpSec Security, Inc. reveals that counterfeiting has expanded beyond high cost health and beauty products, such as luxury fragrances, into everyday personal care items, such as toothpaste, shampoo and nail polish.

Obviously, these fake goods extract an enormous economic toll, pose a threat to brand reputation and present a serious risk to consumer safety, as well.

OpSec used its proprietary internet monitoring platform to identify listings of health and beauty products on business-to-business (B2B) trade boards and business-to-consumer (B2C) trading platforms within the following categories: mascara, nail polish, shampoo, razors, men’s cologne and women’s perfume. By monitoring the key Suspicious Behavior Indicators characteristic of dubious sellers, OpSec found that: (more…)

Counterfeiting operations continue to expand in reach and sophistication, and that means counterfeit products increasingly threaten your supply chain –not to mention the health and safety of millions of people worldwide, as well.

There appears to be a growing consensus that traditional methods of oversight and enforcement are simply not enough to stem the tide of fakes, and legitimate businesses are hungry for innovation to help protect their products and intellectual property.

Case in point:  Last month, the iconic acoustic guitar manufacturer C.F. Martin & Co., announced that it is partnering with Applied DNA Sciences to help secure its brand from global counterfeiting threats.

According to the Applied DNA Sciences website, the company can use DNA to protect either a product or the entire supply chain.  One method, called the SigNature DNA solution, uses DNA from plants to mark and authenticate products. Another, called BioMaterial GenoTyping, can use DNA present in natural material to assure originality and quality throughout the supply chain. Applied DNA Sciences lists applications in: (more…)

A report last year by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Technology Evaluation found that counterfeit electronics are present in troubling amounts in the Department of Defense supply chain.

Then, in March, the Senate Armed Services Committee launched an investigation into this growing problem.

Now, the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) has announced “Operation Chain Reaction,” a new comprehensive initiative to target the counterfeit and pirated goods entering the supply chains of the DOD and other US government agencies.

This is the first time that IPR Center participants have come together to collectively address the threat posed by fake parts in government supply chains. The list of IPR Center participants includes:

• US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)
• US Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
• Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Naval Criminal Investigative Service
• Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS)
• US Army Criminal Investigative Command, Major Procurement Fraud Unit
• General Services Administration, Office of Inspector General
• Defense Logistics Agency, Office of Inspector General
• US Air Force, Office of Special Investigations

In a press release, ICE revealed a few examples of recent investigations involving counterfeit products entering the federal supply chain. Check out these cases, which illustrate the need for immediate attention to this critically important issue: (more…)

Counterfeit products are a threat to everyone’s health and safety. Plus, they extract an enormous economic toll, as well. Analysts now estimate that counterfeiting costs US companies alone $250 billion and results in the annual loss of 750,000 American jobs.

What can your company do to combat this growing global concern?

For starters, I suggest you read through a free report recently published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

This report, Best Practices in the Fight against Global Counterfeiting: An Action Guide to Strengthen Cooperation and Collaboration across Industry Sectors and among Global Supply Chains,  is the product of a 2010 ANSI workshop and conference on anti-counterfeiting, and it includes insights from industry representatives and professionals from trade organizations and associations, academia, consumer groups, law enforcement, and government agencies.

The report also outlines several recommendations to assess and address counterfeiting across industry sectors. These suggestions include: (more…)