Author Archives: paulparadise

OPERATION TEAM PLAYER

Operation Team Player is an ongoing operation that begins after every Super Bowl and runs through the next one targeting international shipments of counterfeit sports merchandise entering the United States.

The Operation is run by the Home Land Security-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), which coordinates its investigations with several law enforcement agencies.

At a June 30^th, press conference held in Tampa, Florida, representatives from Homeland Security Investigations (HIS), the National Football League (NFL), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that in the past year169,000 counterfeit sports-related items worth $45 million had been seized under Operation Team Player.

14th OPERATION PANGEA

According to the Organization for Economic Trade and Development, counterfeit trade in pharmaceuticals is a growing problem currently worth $4.4 billion. Interpol has been organizing a global operation code-named Pangea to combat the problem.

Interpol’s 14^th Operation Pangea concluded in late June with impressive results:

113,OO websites were taken down in 92 participating countries;

22 people arrested

710,000 packages checked;

500,000 fake surgical masks seized in Italy

23 million fake devices of which more than half were counterfeit Covid testing kits

LAWSUIT FILED FOR DEATH OF LA PITCHER TYLER SKAGGS

The family of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs who died from a drug overdose in 2019 have recently filed two law suits against the team, the owner’s business and two former employees alleging wrongful death due to negligence and negligent hiring and supervision.

Skaggs ingested a lethal combination of opiods that included a counterfeit pill that contained fentanyl and not oxycodone and alcohol before choking on his own vomit.

“Skaggs likely believed he was taking just oxycodone and not a deadly combination with fentanyl,” the prosecutor has said.

(2) Former Angels employee charged in Tyler Skaggs’ fatal fentanyl overdose at North Texas hotel – YouTube

the 4th virtual brand protection forum, july 14th, 2021 [discount flyer]

Welcome to attendees of the 4th VBPF

THIS FLYER IS TO BE USED WITH THE PUBLISHER, ABC-CLIO.

Upcoming Talk at the 4th Virtual Brand Protection Forum

The sponsors posted a 30-second link on Linkedin about my book: Trademark Counterfeiting, Product Piracy, and the Billion Dollar Threat to the U.S. Economy.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A6809020630361481216/?midToken=AQFSVUFqfWoPzw&midSig=3QfYFw2wzFSpM1&trk=eml-email_notification_single_menti

Gucci and Facebook File Joint Lawsuit

Gucci and Facebook filed a joint lawsuit in California this month against a counterfeiter.

Facebook, Inc. and Gucci America, Inc. v. Natalia Kokhtenko, 3:21-cv-03036 (N.D. Cal.)

This lawsuit was covered by the media and is said to be the first of its kind [a suit for trademark infringement and trademark counterfeiting] by both companies to crack down against online sellers of counterfeit goods.

Natalia Kokhtenko is based in Russia and operates numerous websites to allegedly sell counterfeit brand label designer brand label goods, in particular Gucci. The websites use the extension “.ru” to indicate Russia (9brends-msk.ru, luxprimer.ru are examples).

Kokhtenko promotes the sale of counterfeit goods on Facebook and Instagram and by doing so violates the social media’s terms of service and their prohibition against “that infringes or violates someone else’s rights, including their intellectual property rights . . .”

COUNTERFEIT COVID-19 VACCINES

The April 22nd front page news story of the Wall Street Journal reported that Pfizer had identified counterfeit versions of the Covid-19 vaccine in Mexico and Poland. The counterfeit doses were seized by authorities in separate investigations in the two countries.

The global vaccination campaign, which includes the German-US BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, is unfortunately attracting fraudsters out to profit from the great demand. The fake Mexican vaccine did not harm anyone, while the Polish vaccine is believed to be an anti-wrinkle treatment. Polish authorities said no one received the counterfeit doses which were seized at a man’s apartment.

This is not the first instance of someone trying to cash in on fake Covid-19 vaccines. In January, 2021, a man in Redmond, Washington State, who claimed to be a biotech expert was arrested for introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce that he injected into as many as one-hundred people by falsely claiming it was Covid-19 vaccine. He charged patients from $400 to $1,000. Authorities have yet to determine what was injected.