Protecting Your Business Brand

Every business works hard to create a brand that instills confidence in the minds of its customers. However, counterfeiting can shatter it all in moments.

Counterfeiting of goods has become quite a serious concern today. It is so common that 1 in every 10 products sold is a spurious one. This underground trade has caught up on almost all products right from pricey technology goods to the humble toothbrush. Each year, counterfeiting results in a loss of millions of dollars. Once a product has been counterfeited, it can be difficult to remedy the problem. Hence, taking the right precautions to prevent it is important.

Steps to Prevent Counterfeiting

• Limit Outsourcing

Outsourcing has been looked upon as a very promising option in the past few decades. The cost benefits are one of the main reasons for it. However, officials investigating the counterfeiting issue have outlined this as one of the main causes promoting counterfeiting. When companies outsource production to less developed countries, they put their designs and plans into another’s hand often resulting in the production of inferior counterfeit goods. Companies should outsource production only if absolutely necessary.

• Assign a Dedicated Team

Protecting your goods from counterfeiting is a full-time job. In the midst of fulfilling core business activities, it is natural for your attention to get diverted from monitoring and protecting company assets. However, this temporary period can cost you a lifetime of effort. If you have a dedicated team to handle the task, you can rest assured and concentrate on other key tasks.

• Brand Protection Solutions

There are many companies that specialize in protecting business brands against counterfeiters. They use varied brand protection solutions such as unique security coding technologies. Their team of employees research and develop

The world of counterfeiting is expanding at an uncontrollable rate. Products are being recreated and copied and sold within a few days of the launch of the original product. The bigger problem is that these inferior quality goods are sold at a fraction of the original cost. There is no silver bullet to fix the problem. However, a few brand protection tools can provide some level of security to your business and your brand.

• Tour the Market

Many companies do not realize for long that their goods are being counterfeited unless it is brought to their notice by others. Counterfeit goods are identical, but with a few distinguishing features. Touring the market will not only help you find out if your goods have been counterfeited, but also give you a hint of the location from where these counterfeit goods are being sold. In addition to this, you should monitor the web regularly. You should check the search engine results for product brand name as well as your company name.

• Register Copyrights  

Registering copyrights for the product or its components is a relatively inexpensive brand protection strategy. Organizations such as IACC (International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition) and INTA (International Trademark Association) give brand owners as well as others a deeper insight into the Infringement Protection law. A better understanding of the law will make it easier to go about the process. If you still think you will be incapable of handling the issue independently, you should work with a lawyer with experience in your industry as well as having experience in copyright and trademark laws.

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) and our sister agency Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) are fully registered agencies offering investigation services to the private and business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

Letters from a Private Investigator

Competitive Intelligence or Corporate Espionage?

Corporate espionage is not new to us. We’ve had a taste of it in films, television series and books, but not many of us are aware of its prevalence in the real world. Big and small corporations are willing to pay exorbitant sums of money to get their hands on a competitors trade secrets whether its information about their next lineup of goods or their secret recipe.

Money does not matter to them because this information can guarantee double and triple amount in returns if they manage to gain ground and dominate the market shares. This is the information that can literally take them from rags to riches.

There is another method of information collection called competitive intelligence. Many mistake competitive intelligence and corporate espionage to be the same. The most important point of distinction is that one is legal and the other illegal.

So what is the difference between competitive intelligence and corporate espionage?

Competitive Intelligence (CI)

Competitive Intelligence is looked upon as a healthy and legal business practice. Unlike a few decades ago, the market for goods has become highly competitive. There are hundreds of companies manufacturing the same product only with a slightly different design and a few added features. If a business has to survive this competition, it is necessary that it keeps itself abreast with information about its competitors. This is where competitive intelligence comes in.

Competitive intelligence is an ethical method of gathering, managing and analyzing information about one’s competitors. The process is not a secretive one. The required information is collected from public sources including trade events, corporate publications, patent filings, company websites and news bulletins. The information that is gathered is used to the advantage of their business. Competitive intelligence is more like market research.

Corporate Espionage (CE)

Corporate Espionage is deemed unethical and illegal. This is the type we get to see in movies and read about in books. The objective of corporate espionage is to acquire private and confidential information about a commercial organization. The process is illegal first because of the information that is traded out and second because of the methods used to do the same.

Unlike competitive intelligence, it involves getting important trade secrets using black hat techniques. Either the information is stolen or is obtained by bribing an employee working with the organization. This employee is usually a person who holds a position of authority and has unlimited access to the company’s confidential information. In some cases these top-level employees are blackmailed to obtain the information.

The kind of information usually sought includes product designs, manufacturing techniques, trademark recipes and formulas, sales and marketing strategies, pricing, customer data, R&D strategies and company policies not publically available. They might also try to obtain information about company bids in various projects.

Corporate espionage is basically spying and usually takes place between corporations while CI involves following ethical business norms and follows legal guidelines. There is however one similarity that we tend to overlook between the two – it is done without the knowledge of the target company. Corporations can use both competitive intelligence and corporate espionage to run their business.

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) and our sister agency Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) are fully registered agencies offering investigation services to the private and business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

A World of Difference Between the Two

A girl files a stalking petition in court. According to her, there’s a man who follows her around and sits each night in his car for hours, outside her house, with night vision gear monitoring her activity. She claims it to be an invasion of her privacy and wants him to be penalized. The defendant turns out to be a private investigator hired by her ex-boyfriend. He flashes his professional license in court to convey that he is exempted from the stalking order. Thus, what is stalking for the plaintiff becomes surveillance for the defendant, although there will be difference between different countries.

Is this reason enough to let the defendant go? Does this mean that a private investigator has a free reign to pry into others matters only because he has a professional license? This is where the common man tends to mix up surveillance and stalking. There is a very fine line between surveillance and stalking knowing where to draw the line will make all the difference.

Surveillance vs Stalking 

Surveillance is mostly taken up by private investigators. Indeed it is a very important tool of private investigators. It is stalking on behalf of a client.

However, it is generally considered legal in most countires. This is so long as it is conducted within the laws of any given location. For example the surveillance should be conducted in a way that respects a target’s legal right to a reasonable expectation of privacy, or surveillance should not cross over into illegal activities such as breaking into someone’s house.

Thus, a private investigator in many countries is legally entitled to gather information not available in public records. S/he can do so by approaching the person in question directly or in a covert manner such as following the person around, or keeping a personal vigil. The information collected is often produced as evidence in court.

Stalking is considered illegal and reflects a criminal intent. It is often also regarded as an activity with a sociopathic nature.

A Matter of Intent

The intent is the major point of distinction between the two. The main objective of surveillance is to collect legitimate investigative evidence. This evidence is used to strengthen a case in court.  In case of stalking, the objective of collecting information is to control or intimidate the person. The stalker might use the information to force the victim to give in to his wishes and demands.

The laws applicable in different locations also determine the legality of surveillance often pinpointing where surveillance becomes stalking. In situations like the one mentioned at the start, the country laws will determine whether it is stalking or surveillance based on the intent. If it is used only to collect information, it can be regarded as surveillance. However, if it threatens the safety of a victim or makes them feel unreasonably safe, it becomes stalking whether it is done by a licensed professional or not.

Surveillance Is Not Stalking

• When there is a legitimate motive
• When it does not make the person feel unreasonably safe

If you want to gather information about a particular person, you should hire a private investigator.

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) and our sister agency Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) are fully registered agencies offering investigation services to the private and business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

Social media has changed courts of law and the rules about what is and is not considered substantial. Relevant evidence has changed dramatically with the growth of social media (Personal Investigator).

Today social media evidence is admissible in a court of law and social network accounts are very important considerations where lawyers and private investigators look for evidence when building cases. Lawyers specifically use evidence from social media to build up prepared statements about a person’s state of mind as well as proving evidence of communication, place and time, or actions.

For example, someone might publish on his or her Facebook status: “I have got to do it. There is no turning back, I’m sorry”. If this was published by an accused person twenty minutes before the alleged crime was committed it could certainly pack a punch with a jury.

Remember also it is not just about the words used but also social media can offer some incriminating location details (Personal Investigator). A post could put someone near the scene of the crime at a given time.

Additionally, social media evidence can add up over time and show the growth of relationships and extra martial affairs that could be used as evidence in divorce proceedings.

Divorce Proceedings

It’s important to be aware of the role that social media can play in legal proceedings today so that you can protect yourself from self-incrimination through evidence gathered in social media contexts. Did you know?

• 66% of online divorce evidence comes from Facebook,
• 14% comes from MySpace,
• 5% comes from Twitter,
• 15% comes from other sources.

Additionally, lawyers and private investigators can collect information from Instagram, SnapChat, LinkedIn, blogs, dating websites, and any other sites that you frequent online.

Depending on the type of case presented against you they will utilize different kinds of sites to build a case with social media an important part of the evidence (Personal Investigator).

Problems with Social Media

There are some problems that have arisen when dealing with social media evidence. First of all the courts in the west have acknowledged that there are many ways to doctor or edit photos to be incriminating and anyone has the ability to create a fake account (Personal Investigator). The process of properly verifying the source of the information, especially written information, can be very difficult and acquiring proof can take time that the court might not have.

Additionally, lawyers have to be careful about how they acquire the evidence and cannot coax information from victims or others by acting as a counterfeit friend online. Evidence can be immediately dismissed if the methods for acquiring the information are inappropriate. Facebook also isn’t incredibly cooperative when turning over information for court proceedings and will not provide expert testimony (Personal Investigator).

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) and our sister agency  Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) are fully registered Private Investigation Agencies offering private detective and private investigator services to the Private and Business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.

The field of private investigation has traditionally been known to be a “man’s world”. The focus is most definetley on  men. Think about it honestly. If we were to ask what image comes to mind when you hear the word ‘detective’ or ‘investigator’, you would probably say that you imagine a tall handsome man. Possibly with a pipe in his mouth, in other words a Sherlock Holmes. In case you are an Agatha Christie fan, and can’t get enough of the Belgian detective with a foreign accent, you would probably say Hercule Poirot (Private Investigator).

Would you remotely think of Nancy Drew or even Miss Marple for that matter? And that’s just fiction! What we are trying to get at is that the field of private investigation has always been known to be a “boy’s club” and that brings us to the many challenges that women face in the field of private investigation.

Thanks to the fact that women are moving towards being on par with men in every field today, the number of women in the field of private investigation has also seen a spurt. A lot of women over the past couple of decades have chosen to get into this field and the challenges they face are no different than they would in any other profession.

Women can do everything. Right from being homemakers to flying space shuttles, women have literally done it all, and yet when it comes to the space of private investigation women have traditionally stayed away. Even when we stand in the 21^st century, there is still a lot of prejudice against a woman who chooses to be in the field of private investigation. And this is despite the fact that she may have superior training as well as better skills and methods as compared to her male counterparts.

Women Private Investigators on the Rise

Having said that, this perception is changing, albeit slowly. A lot of women in the recent past have chosen to enter this field not just based on their so-called intuitive powers, but because they have had a career in the armed forces or the police or have been in a police forensics department. These ladies have been inspired to enter the world of private investigation. Unlike what they show you in movies, it’s anything but a glamorous job and there are substantial risks to security, health and emotional stability. And yet there are women in the field of private investigation for whom the last word is integrity.

Despite the many achievements of female private investigators, this is a field that continues to be dominated by men. However, in recent years, there has been a paradigm shift. Women from varied backgrounds are choosing to take up private investigation as a profession. With this welcome change, we can only hope that the future will not be as dismal as the past. History is witness to the fact that a lot of good work done by many unrecognised female detectives has been lost, simply because nobody bothered to take their work seriously.

Everyday Challenges for a Female Private Investigator

There is always an attempt to find the right work-life balance, especially if a woman has a family and children (Private Investigator. There are the long hours and having to explain to young children in the best way possible the need for a disguise or an undercover operation (without giving too much away).

Private investigation is not a regular job, so to say, and the everyday pressures while working on a complex case are far more demanding than many professions. Women in the field of private investigation therefore would not end up as a soccer mom, but she would have her achievements to speak for herself when her kids do grow up to understand her profession.

The other challenge that a woman may face as a private investigator, is her emotional connection with a case. The work of a detective has a lot to do with human psychology, and try as they may it’s difficult to keep it strictly professional at times. At times, without being aware of it, a woman may get so involved in her case that she becomes extremely sympathetic with the victim. This can have a detrimental impact not just on her career but also on her psychological health, where it may so happen that she cannot move on from one particular case (Private Investigator.

A Woman in a Man’s World

Perhaps the biggest challenge a female investigator faces still in the 21^st century is prejudice at her workplace. Several woman detectives have gone on record to say that though their  male colleagues have tried their best to keep it subtle, their off-handed remarks and attitude have always suggested that a woman private investigator is not “as good” as a man just because she is a woman! These ladies who have done exceedingly well for themselves as private investigators, and admit that one of the toughest challenges for them was to prove their mettle in the “world of men.” The good news however is that times are changing.

With more and more women being encouraged to take up private investigation as their field of work, we can only hope that this prejudice against women working in this field will soon be a thing of the past (Private Investigator.

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) and our sister agency Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) are fully registered agencies offering investigation services to the private and business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia. More Articles

Though men have been the archetypal private investigators, fictional woman private investigators have existed way before even Sherlock Holmes was introduced in 1887. An author of British origin, Andrew Forrester Jr. introduced Mrs Gladden, the first female detective character in 1864. If one reads Mrs Gladden’s adventures and approach to crime, one would find that Holmes is perhaps a worthy successor to her methods of deduction (Private Detective Agency).

The Early Era of Fictional Woman Detectives

Soon after Mrs Gladden came Mrs Paschal. She was a widow of forty and comes across as any other hardboiled male detective. She is proficient in the use of a Colt revolver. Her cases involved everything – murder, forgery, kidnapping and theft. She was the narrator of her own adventures and in them she claims that she has “certain advantages” over her male competitors because criminals and suspects do not think of her as a detective. Her methods of solving a crime involved a methodical approach, and were contrary to the criticism that a woman private investigator relies too heavily on intuition. Both, Gladden and Paschal display their skills of disguise.

Another contemporary American lady detective who was introduced in the year 1880 was Kate Goelet. Despite being young (she was only twenty three) and beautiful, she was adept at weaponry and could pull out six inch daggers from her sleeves with ease. The creator of Goelet also brought to life another female detective character Cad Metti, who showed that she was capable enough not only to take care of herself but also at knocking out an antagonist. She too comes across as a genius in disguise.

The Fiction and the Facts

Of the best known female investigators ever created however is Agatha Christie’s famous lady detective Miss Jane Marple, who makes her first appearance in 1928. Introduced as a spinster at the ripe age of sixty five, Miss Marple modestly admits many times that she is “not clever” and leads what is assumed to be a quiet life in the English countryside (Private Detective Agency). She however does say that living a number of years has given her a rare insight into human nature. Although she always remains ladylike and genteel, her adventures show that she can uncover almost any crime because of her “rare insight”.

Though the above characters remain etched in the minds of  book lovers, in real life women in the field of private investigation were unheard of till the year 1856, when Kate Warne earned the honour of being the first female investigator in the history of America. She was associated with the Pinkerton Detective Agency which was founded by Allen Pinkerton. Although she had applied for the job of a secretary, the founder of the firm was so impressed by her that he saw in her the potential of making a great female investigator. Indeed, Warne lived up to the expectations of Pinkerton and became adept at gathering information that none of her male counterparts were able to. She was even able to save the then presidential elect Abraham Lincoln from an assassination attempt.

The unfortunate part in the history of private investigation is that although there may have been many brilliant woman private investigators nobody has bothered to maintain their records and success stories. With days and times changing now, one hopes that history will not repeat itself and the work of female private investigators will be given as much credit as with their male counterparts (Private Detective Agency).

Indonesia Private Investigation Agency (IPIA) and our sister agency Bali Eye Private Investigation Agency (BEPIA) are fully registered agencies offering investigation services to the private and business sectors throughout Indonesia and South East Asia.