Let’s talk about this week’s counterfeit drama.
Four incidents. Four industries. Same sinking feeling.
We’ve got fake cycling gear with cloned serials. Tens of thousands of knock-off toys intercepted. Livestream scammers selling bootleg fashion like it’s QVC. And lawmakers finally side-eyeing mega-platforms like SHEIN and Temu.
At first, it feels like business as usual in the IP trenches.
But zoom out and you’ll see it. A pattern. A big one.
Counterfeiters aren’t just reacting. They’re evolving. Fast.
Meanwhile, most brands are still duct-taping yesterday’s solutions onto today’s problems.
Case in point
- Cycling gear: Counterfeiters are cloning serial numbers.
Remember when holograms felt high-tech? Cute. - Toys: Nearly 18,000 fakes were seized.
Great. But how many slipped through micro-parcel shipping or third-party logistics? - Livestream e-commerce: One person moved over $4M in fakes through livestreams and peer-to-peer apps.
That’s not a loophole. That’s a business model. - SHEIN and Temu: Congress is finally asking questions brands have been shouting into the void for years.
Maybe the volume finally got loud enough.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth
Counterfeiters are winning because they know where you’re not looking.
They live in the blind spots — the digital-gray-market-no-man’s-land between factory floor and Instagram feed.
And they’re not waiting for your annual audit or your Q2 packaging update.
Meanwhile, brand protection still treats the problem like it’s stuck in 2013.
Audit the supplier. Check.
Update the serials. Check.
Send a takedown notice. Check.
It’s like bringing a sword to a drone fight.
Time for a mindset shift
The question is no longer:
“How do we stop fakes?”
It’s:
“How do we see the problem before it costs us?”
Before the clones hit shelves.
Before the livestream sells out.
Before the headline drops.
Counterfeiting isn’t a product issue anymore. It’s a systems issue.
And here’s the kicker: some brands aren’t just behind.
They haven’t even started.
So… what can brands actually do?
Here’s the truth: counterfeiters don’t wait.
They move fast. They exploit blind spots.
And every fake chips away at trust, revenue, and control.
Most brands think they need a perfect solution.
They don’t.
They just need to start.
- Start marking products with smart packaging — holograms, QR codes, anything that’s harder to fake and easier to track.
- Start monitoring key online channels — marketplaces, social platforms, livestreams.
- Start connecting the dots across packaging, logistics, and digital.
Because if you’re not looking, no one else is.
Protection doesn’t have to be complex. It has to be consistent.
Start now. Start small.
Before the clones hit shelves.
Before the livestream sells out.
Before the headline drops.
