Counterfeiting remains a serious problem, to say the least. According to a recent report of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, global trade in counterfeit goods could pass US 2 trillion annually, making it one of the 10 largest “economies” and one of the biggest sources of job losses globally. All sectors are concerned, most brands experience harm from counterfeiting, not only inflicting massive negative economic harm, but also posing a danger to consumers’ health and safety and on the environment… And the trend is not slowing down and is in recent years further exacerbated by increased online counterfeiting.  Combating counterfeit is one of the most challenging concerns of our times. This is the mission of Countercheck, a German/Italian company, whose objective is to “revolutionize the counterfeit landscape” by closing the route to market for counterfeiters. Earlier this year, they won the award in the Scale-up category of INTA’s first-ever Open Innovation Challenge, prevailing among 31 entrants.  Countercheck has developed an anticounterfeiting technology (patent pending software) that allows parcel and postal firms to intercept and block small parcels containing counterfeit goods—before they are delivered to the end consumers—and take out of circulation. With access to worldwide cross-belt sorters equipped with parcel detection technology to identify and sideload suspicious parcels, brand owners and couriers can join forces in this fight and scale the removal of counterfeit goods from the marketplace.  Our guest for this episode of Brand & New is Phil Hamilton, Countercheck co-founder and CEO since 2021. Experienced in bringing new business solutions to a diverse set of industries and markets, he worked internationally for more than 15 years in business growth roles. He is based in Germany. Brand & New is a production of the International Trademark Association Hosted by Audrey Dauvet - Contribution of M. Halle & S. Lagedamond - Music by JD Beats FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT INTA.ORG To go further: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phamilt/?originalSubdomain=de Also of interest: https://www.inta.org/inta-events/open-innovation-challenge/ https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USPTO-Counterfeit.pdf