ANSI: Best Practices in the Fight Against Global Counterfeiting

Counterfeit products are a threat to everyone's health and safety. Plus, they extract an enormous economic toll, as well. Analysts now estimate that counterfeiting costs US companies alone $250 billion and results in the annual loss of 750,000 American jobs.

What can your company do to combat this growing global concern?

For starters, I suggest you read through a free report recently published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

This report, Best Practices in the Fight against Global Counterfeiting: An Action Guide to Strengthen Cooperation and Collaboration across Industry Sectors and among Global Supply Chains, is the product of a 2010 ANSI workshop and conference on anti-counterfeiting, and it includes insights from industry representatives and professionals from trade organizations and associations, academia, consumer groups, law enforcement, and government agencies.

The report also outlines several recommendations to assess and address counterfeiting across industry sectors. These suggestions include:


standardization of supply chain procedures



strengthening compliance



supporting law enforcement



increased education



greater public-private collaboration


In sum, the ANSI concludes that fighting counterfeiting is a war on all fronts, and that traditional methods of oversight and enforcement are simply not enough. All affected parties must play a proactive role and work together for solutions.

"The rapid growth and sophisticated organization of counterfeiting operations is increasingly threatening legitimate business and the health and safety of millions of people," S. Joe Bhatia, ANSI president and CEO, said. "Over the past year, ANSI has brought together the cross-sector experts needed to identify and address counterfeiting and facilitate the means to combat it. The resulting report provides businesses, organizations anyone with something at risk of counterfeiting with a tool to take concrete action."

The 31-page document is now available as a free download on ANSI's website.