The Label Printers was a Round Table Leader at the recent Brand Protection Summit in Los Angeles, hosted by UL. 

Aurora, IL – The Label Printers’ was invited to participate at UL’s recent Brand Protection Summit in Los Angeles, California as an Interactive Round Table Leader. The Summit included UL “clients, key law enforcement partners, invited guests, and a select number of brand protection service providers/specialists.”

The Label Printers’ topic was “Product Security Solutions – Facing Operational Realities”, and Lori Campbell, The Label Printers’ Chief of Operations was the Round Table Leader.  Key Note speaker for the conference was Mr. Todd Rogers, Assistant Sheriff, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

UL outlined the Event’s purpose and benefits in their Registration/Welcome materials, “For over 15 years, UL has taken an aggressive stance against product counterfeiting through a comprehensive program involving enforcement, education and partnerships with key IP crime stakeholders from around the world. As a leader in product safety testing and certification, as well as a rights holder, UL knows the detrimental effects IP crime can have on a company’s resources, reputation and to its corporate goals.

As part of our public service and safety-oriented mission, UL is organizing the 2013 Conference to serve as a catalyst to strengthen and enhance brand protection programs, provide best practices for combatting IP crime and to strengthen global partnerships against this growing threat. International, national and local experts will be on hand to provide a dynamic two-day training forum with innovative learning sessions that will include; operational workshops, interactive roundtables and a networking lounge. Additionally, we will offer rights holders the opportunity to set up exhibition tables where they can provide product identification training to law enforcement attendees. This benefit will also be extended to service providers so they may provide participants with the latest brand protection solutions.

The 2014 Conference will provide participants with the following key benefits:

• Will increase effectiveness to combat intellectual property crime
• Provide the tools required to design, implement and/or strengthen brand protection programs
• Highlight best practices for working with law enforcement agencies and service providers
• Develop stronger strategic and tactical international partnerships and networks
• Gain confidence by learning real cases shared by IP Crime experts and practitioners
• Provide the opportunity to develop operational partnerships with UL, other rights holders and law enforcement agencies to undertake joint IP crime investigations, enforcement projects and training initiatives.”

William J. Kane, Chief Executive of The Label Printers thinks that the conference has value to a wide range of organizations and companies interested in the latest information on brand protection.  “Between the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, we always hear really interesting information about cases they’re prosecuting. The FBI is deeply engaged in the investigation and prosecution of [counterfeiting] criminals, and they emphasize how the buyers of counterfeit goods fund terrorists and organized crime. We heard about a really interesting case involving Nike shoes where the counterfeiter’s excuse was ‘I didn’t know’ – which worked the first time, but not the second.”  He feels that there are always really excellent speakers at the event, such as Therese Randazzo who is the Director of IPR Policy and Programs with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, whose speech at the conference opening on “Effective Enforcement Strategies – Working With Customs and Border Protection” highlighted Customs’ herculean task of inspecting 250,000 packages every day.

Said Campbell about her Round Table, “The workshops and roundtables allowed attendees to engage further with one another on various topics.  My roundtable discussion was one of facing operational realities and how to increase the buy-in from departments within one’s organization.” 

About the conference in general, Campbell said “It’s clear that UL’s influence in brand protection and anti-counterfeiting continues to grow, as evidenced by the increasing number of brand owners in attendance that aren’t UL’s direct customers.  UL’s Brand Protection Summit continues to improve every year.  I felt there was a distinctly practical approach to all of the key presentations offered to attendees – geared towards educating rights holders on everything from training to Customs inspection and clearance process to investigations to litigation of criminal and civil cases.”

Conference participants included brand owners such as Altria; solution providers such as The Label Printers and; government and law enforcement agencies such as the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, INTERPOL, EUROPOL, the FBI, and Homeland Security; and many other intellectual property and anti-counterfeiting experts.