Brands · Manufacturers · Creators · Lawyers and ICCs
Counterfeit goods and brand protection investigations
Trace suspicious sales channels and document counterfeit goods. INVESTIPOLE investigates distribution, sellers and commercial links to support your brand protection work.
Confidentiality. Before any action, the invoked title, the known facts and the truly useful evidence are examined with your advice, taking care not to alert the seller.
Suspicion on the evidence file
Why hire a private detective when dealing with counterfeiting?
Counterfeiting refers to any infringement of an intellectual property right: trademark, patent, design, copyright protected work, software. The phenomenon covers both copying a product and imitation of a logo, resale of counterfeit goods or illegal posting of a creation.
Behind an advertisement are often several accounts, relay companies, a warehouse and an importer. The holder identifies the copy, but still has to freeze the evidence, identify the actual seller, understand the supply and measure the extent of the distribution.
Investipole has been supporting companies, creators, corporate lawyers, IP consultants and attorneys for nearly 20 years. Your detectives all have at least 10 years of experience in test purchases, company research, point-of-sale surveillance and online investigations, within the limits of the law.
Each right, its demonstration
Brand, patent, design, copyright: four types of counterfeiting
A resemblance is not enough to characterize a forgery. The opposite title, its validity, its territory and the acts complained of are first analysed with your advice.
Trademark counterfeiting
To establish: applied logo, advertisement, price, seller, purchase and sales channel.
Patent counterfeiting
To be established: purchased copy, manufacturer, distributor, volumes and technical elements for the expert.
Designs and models
To be established: registered model, compared product, shops, importers and marketplaces.
Copyright and software
To be established: dated versions, media, distributor accounts, offers and online timeline.
Preserving before acting
Useful evidence answers a specific question.
The investigation verifies the reality of the offer, the identity of the seller, the origin of the product, the extent of the distribution and the elements of the injury. The analysis of the title and technical expertise remain within your advice.
Cascading sellers
Short-lived accounts, broken prices, photos taken from the official catalogue, stocks broken between several market places.
Hidden origin
Relay companies, intermediaries, importers not found or parcels shipped from several warehouses.
Fragile digital traces
A modified ad or an deleted account erases the evidence: preservation is prepared before any visible reaction.
Expanding damage
Past quantities, seniority of sales, lost margins, degraded image: each item of injury requires its own dated elements.
Keep under hand titles, genuine items, advertisements, invoices and first messages. Sent too soon, a notice may cause an account, stock or industry to disappear yet unknown.
Photo of illustration: suspicious clothing and markings examined during investigation.
Test purchase
Track the sale, not just the product.
The test purchase provides a sample, its packaging, proof of payment, and delivery data. Each step is dated, from announcement to opening of the parcel, to provide your advisors with a coherent chain of evidence.
The report links the article to an advertisement, a seller, at a price, a date and a circuit. The legal or technical expertise remains that of your advice.
Four steps
From the protected title to the sales channel
The mission is being built with the incumbent, lawyer or ICC to search for useful facts without revealing the strategy too soon.
Confidential framing
Title, territory, genuine product, suspicious offers, urgency, damage and steps already taken are gathered.
Test purchases and findings
Announcement, order, payment, messages, delivery, packaging, markings and product received are drawn according to the needs of the case file.
Trace back the supply chain
Shops, accounts, companies, warehouses, intermediaries and importers are interlinked to distinguish an isolated reseller from an organisation.
Report and next steps
Chronology, pieces and limits of the findings go to your advice for a finding, seizure-counterfeiting, withdrawal of advertisements, civil action or complaint.
Evidence and procedure
The report prepares for action against counterfeiting, without replacing the expert or seizure.
Your detectives can establish that an offer exists, that a sale has taken place, that seems to be operating, where a stock is located and since when the distribution lasts. Scope of the law, technical comparison and legal qualification are the responsibility of the lawyer, the ICC or the expert.
An offer and a sale
Announcement and price, seller's identity, order, payment, parcels, packaging, article appearance.
A distribution chain
Related accounts, shops, companies, intermediaries, warehouses, vehicles and observable flows.
Technical comparison, finding, seizure, detention and search are the responsibility of other professionals and other authorities.
Who does what
A case becomes more robust when each player acts in his or her field at the right time.
France and international circuits
French ad, European seller, stock elsewhere: the trail can be followed.
A counterfeit case often combines market places, social networks, physical shops, trade fairs, warehouses, freight forwarders and importers. Investipole leads the findings possible in France; abroad, partners authorized under local law can intervene in connection with your advice.
In the report, three categories remain distinct: what your detectives saw, what an open source indicates, what an expert or procedure will have to confirm.
Anonymized folders
Counterfeiting investigations: four anonymised cases
Names, volumes, locations and circumstances are changed. In each of these cases, the right invoked was examined with the advice of the client and the custom-set mission.
Textile · Brand sold online
Bargain clothes under a protected logo, from one account to another
A French brand marks on sales sites for clothing marked with its logo. Sales accounts constantly change and re-use the same photos, which masks the operator. Several test purchases link each ad to a settlement, a shipment, a packaging and the article received. The reconciliation of delivery references and accessible commercial information shows a single logistics intermediary behind several accounts. The report brings together the dated advertisements, orders, products, declared sellers and established links between accounts. Together with its lawyer and CPI, the brand thus has a solid timeline to obtain withdrawals, complete the findings and target operators whose identity is established.
Industry · Patent
A competitor's equipment seems to copy a patented invention
At a trade show and then at a distributor, a manufacturer notices equipment whose operation resembles their patent. The technical comparison remains outside the scope of the mission. The investigation focuses on marketing: purchasing a unit, noting the offer, the distributor's name, the manufacturer's references, trade shows where the device was displayed, and initial volume indicators. The patent holder's experts receive products and documents to compare them against the patent claims. Economic research simultaneously identifies the importer and a stock available in France. This provides the lawyer with locations, stakeholders and concrete evidence to assess the advisability of a seizure for patent infringement, rather than acting on a mere visual similarity.
Software · Former collaborator
A rival software with strangely familiar functions
A publisher learns that a former employee sells software close to his/her own. Similar functions are not sufficient to prove the copy of the source code. Investipole gathers public elements: demonstrations, legally accessible trial versions, documentation, tariffs, launch dates, operating company, commercial communication. A chronology traces professional and commercial links, without any fraudulent access to a system or private data. The lawyer and computer expert then receive the file: these specialists analyse only the technique and protection invoked. The facts help distinguish between forgery of software, infringement of business secrecy and unfair competition, and then choose appropriate evidence measures.
Furniture · European market places
A protected furniture design copied by several shops
A furniture publisher discovers, in several market places, furniture that takes on the appearance of a registered model. Test purchases from separate sellers allow to compare products, packaging, shippers and logistical references. Investigations show that shops with different social reasons depend on the same supply chain and on the same European warehouse. The report does not pronounce itself on counterfeiting. Sales, actors and flows are established there; comparison with the protected model, based on the overall visual impression, comes to the advice of the holder. Thanks to this mapping, withdrawals of advertisements and legal actions are aimed at central operators, instead of treating each advertisement in isolation.
Your questions
Counterfeiting and a private detective: the essentials
General benchmarks: each response adapts to the right in question, the country concerned and the strategy of your advice.
What is counterfeiting?
Any infringement of an intellectual property right: reproduction, imitation or use of a trademark, patent, design, work or software without the consent of the owner.
What risks do sellers or buyers of counterfeit goods face?
The seller is liable for criminal prosecution, damages and confiscation of the goods. Holding counterfeits without proof, or returning them from travel, is also a customs offence. Confiscation, fine of one to two times the value of the object of the fraud and up to 3 years imprisonment are then incurred.
Imitation and counterfeiting: what's the difference?
An imitation is only penalised as counterfeiting if a valid right is infringed in the relevant territory. Failing that, unfair competition or free-riding may sometimes come into play. The analysis is up to your legal advisors.
How can a private detective help with counterfeiting?
Figuring offers, making test purchases, identifying real sellers, locating a stock or point of sale, understanding the distribution chain. The report gives the lawyer and the ICC a dated timeline.
What are the steps of a test purchase?
Registration of the advertisement, tracing of order and settlement, retention of messages, documentation of receipt of the parcel. The purchase is about what the seller proposes to the public, without pushing it towards an unplanned act.
What role does customs play in fighting counterfeiting?
The holder files a free application for intervention, valid for one year and renewable. Suspicious goods may then be withheld ten working days, extendable in certain cases, or three days for perishable foodstuffs. This period is used to initiate an action or obtain the destruction of the products, with the consent of the holder or without objection on his part.
Counterfeits of your brand are circulating on Vinted or Amazon: what should you do?
Fig the ads first, then signal them via the tool provided by the platform: the European Digital Services Regulation imposes this mechanism on hosting companies. In the face of recurring sellers, a test purchase and identification of related accounts prepare a firmer action.
Counterfeiting or unfair competition: how to tell the difference?
The first protects an intellectual property right. The second penalises a wrongdoing committed in business life: confusion, denigration, disruption, free-riding. Both actions may sometimes be combined, provided they are based on distinct facts.
What is counterfeiting by equivalence?
In the field of patents, a different form means, which fulfils the same function for a similar result, may constitute infringement. However, the function of the patented medium must be new, i.e. unknown to earlier art. The appraisal is technical: the proprietor's expert compares the product with the claims, then the judge settles.
Copied software: what investigation is possible?
An investigation can document the offers, legally accessible versions, announced clients, dates and public communication. No intrusion is planned, either into a system or into source code; the technical comparison is the responsibility of the IT expert.
Perfume, clothing, spare parts: how to recognise a counterfeit?
Abnormally low price, approximate packaging, absent lot number, seller without verifiable address: these clues alert without proving. The examination by the holder or an expert, from a genuine copy, establishes whether the article is authentic; then the qualification of infringement falls to the judge.
How much does a counterfeiting investigation cost?
The fee for a private investigator specializing in counterfeiting varies from 90 to 120 € tax excl. per hour according to several criteria, with free quotation. One day comes down to about 975 € tax excl.; five days of investigation are offered at the package of approximately €4,500 excluding VAT all inclusive investigation fees. The price of items purchased during the tests purchases is included separately in the quotation.
How long does a counterfeiting investigation take?
An isolated test purchase is documented within a few days, including delivery times. Upgrading a line takes several weeks, with step points and sometimes a judicial emergency to integrate.
International counterfeiting: how is the investigation organised?
Possible investigations in France are carried out directly; abroad, partners authorized under local law take over. Applicable law, means of investigation and use of evidence are verified country by country with your advice.
Confidential study
Is a copy threatening your brand or creation?
Collect the protected title, an authentic copy, suspicious ads, dates and steps already made, then write to contact@investipole.fr. Investipole defines with your lawyer or ICC useful findings and sends you a free quotation.
Initiate confidential study Confidentiality · free quotation · Strategy agreed with your advice