PICA Corp And Brand Enforcement Partner for UK Brand Protection Effort

Source from:  worldtobacco.co.uk 12/17/2007

To better serve companies facing counterfeit problems in the United Kingdom, PICA Corporation, one of the world's largest corporate investigations and loss prevention companies, has formed a strategic partnership with London-based Brand Enforcement UK Ltd. This partnership enhances PICA's Trading Standards response, training of Customs officials and police officers, enforcement of intellectual property rights, and brand intelligence capabilities in the UK. Managing brands in the UK can be cumbersome for some companies as it requires a local representative to respond quickly to the Trading Standard Institutes' requests for product verification. The Trading Standards Institute has approximately 200 offices around the UK, each headed by local authorities. When Trading Standards Officers (TSOs) seize alleged counterfeit goods, a company representative must authenticate the product in order to have legal recourse for prosecuting the counterfeiters. Lisa Lovell, founder and managing director of Brand Enforcement UK and PICA's London office program director, serves as a liaison with TSOs. Currently, she represents numerous well-known brands in various categories from clothing to software and tobacco. "Today, companies produce and sell goods in a global marketplace; they must enforce their intellectual property rights everywhere in the world at the same time, even though it is impossible for their representatives to be everywhere at once," said Vincent Volpi, CEO of PICA Corporation. "Through our strategic partnership with Lisa, a well-known, well-respected brand protection specialist, we can offer additional boots on the ground by working credibly with law enforcement officials for our clients with goods in the UK." "This will dovetail into our ability to offer flat-rate, monthly packages on comprehensive brand protection services for the UK, including registration, training, liaison, and enforcement," Volpi added. With more than nine years of experience in this niche legal field, Lovell has gained a strong reputation. She is currently appointed by the UK Intellectual Property Office as a member of the Intellectual Property Crime Group (IPCG), providing advice on the development of the UK's National Intellectual Property Crime Strategy. She also serves as the chairperson of IPCG's Prevention Working sub-group. Lovell, a regular writer for World Tobacco, has written extensively on the subject of intellectual property theft for various publications such as Trademark World and Licensing Today Worldwide. She also is the editor of The Times' bi-annual special supplements on intellectual property and was a contributing author to the Handbook of European IP Management, published by Kogan Page in 2007. She has spoken at various high-profile events including "Growing Business with IP," an event organised by the European Patent Office; the Intellectual Property Crime Congress; World Tobacco; The Institute of Trademark Attorneys; and Brand Protection. "We are very excited about this new partnership with PICA Corporation. It's wonderful to come together with a like-minded company that will widen our international scope and offer additional resources," said Lovell. "Together, we are driven to achieve successful results that more than justify our clients' investments, actively enforcing our clients' brands by coordinating and maximizing the effectiveness of all available resources." Enditem