Any company that manufactures or consumes  in their products has always had to deal with a volatile component marketplace.  But now globalization and outsourcing are making the situation significantly more challenging.  In particular, companies are struggling with how to protect their intellectual property in a rogue world—particularly when outsourcing to low cost regions.  One Tier 1 global enterprise (Whose name remains confidential for security purposes.) found that the combination of setting up an “intelligence” department within the company and a new software solution from New Momentum which targets finding counterfeits and sales through unauthorized channels helped them protect their brand and their revenues.

 

 Problem:

There were four key issues that were the catalysts for driving the need to more effectively protect the company’s brand and IP.

·         As this company expanded its operations globally, quality issues began to appear in customers ‘     products. Research into these problems revealed that remarked or counterfeit parts were used—a problem that could lead to a loss of both reputation and revenues. 

·         There was a potential loss of revenues from existing partners buying “excess” products on the open market, instead of at “good partner” prices. 

·         Since their business plan focused on moving to an increasingly royalty based and less chip based business model, they needed to find a way let partners know they were serious about protecting their IP and their brand.

·         As one of the few companies who started early developing patents and investing huge amounts in partner development, much of their culture was built around knowing what’s coming, out-engineering and investing the competition, and then winning in the stage of world trade.  As a result, they were concerned that their features would begin appearing in competitors products, causing their reputation and culture to suffer.

Solution: Brand Protection White Paper