It is estimated that more than 3% of all world commerce and up to 15-20% of all sales of small consumer goods are lost to online counterfeiting on e-commerce platforms, nearly all of it to foreign counterfeiters, resulting in fewer jobs, less revenue, and in some cases even major heath and safety issues for U.S. companies. It costs recognized brands billions and undermines consumer trust, and is a big enough problem that Congress has for years been debating legislation to address the scourge of online counterfeiting. Enforcement is difficult, as site take-downs result in a game of whack-a-mole, with new online storefronts forming every day and parties migrating regularly to newer harder-to-trace sales.
But there are ways to fight back. Unified Brands offers a proven solution that costs nothing to a premium brand owner and works to deter future counterfeiting, in short, by following the money. Instead of filing takedowns and chasing online storefronts reactively—which rarely leads to any sustained decrease in counterfeiting—Unified proactively works with brands and counsel to freeze counterfeiter's bank accounts and then shares in the brand’s proceeds, recovering nothing unless the brand does. This allows Unified to offer its services for no upfront fees. Combined with Unified’s proven deterrence effects, data shows regular enforcement can lead to a sustained decrease in online counterfeiting against the brand on ecommerce platforms.
As a leader in the streaming space and as a top seller of consumer electronics, Roku has seen counterfeiting, particularly of its remotes, which have led to confusion, quality, and support issues among its consumers.
In short, working with Unified Brands on regular enforcement activity ensures that counterfeiters now know selling fake remotes will lead to substantial monetary losses, not just losing a listing.
Public court filings can be found here
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