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Cease & Desist | Criminal Enforcement  | Special Event Enforcement | Anti-Counterfeiting Programs
Internet Services | Business Partner Compliance Programs

Special event enforcement can be a challenging task. Our team has had the experience in working all types of events from concerts, wrestling matches, motorcycle rallies and sporting events to other events that commonly attract transient vendors, who come to the events to quickly “cash in” on the events popularity.

It is very important to take some type of action at these events. If a brand owner or venue operator does nothing to protect the legitimate sales of merchandise at these types of events, the counterfeiters and pirates will most certainly take advantage of the lack of enforcement. The legitimate vendors will lose large amounts of sales if these illegitimate vendors are allowed to freely conduct their sales.  

There are generally three ways that you can deal with special events that are one day to several day events. The best and most effective way to deal with the vendors in these situations is to work with local law enforcement to conduct criminal actions against the subjects that are around the events selling their pirated or counterfeit merchandise.

If the vendors face arrest and prosecution at these events, they will think twice and will usually focus their efforts on other venues or events that they know do not conduct any type of enforcement. The counterfeiters and pirates talk with each other and they know who is and who is not doing enforcement. The IC team has had great experiences working with various law enforcement agencies in dealing with special event enforcement. We have arranged large scale enforcement actions that have taken place for several days during the events. The photographs below depict IC’s actual enforcement actions that have taken place during special events:

The second way to handle special event enforcement is to work with a local attorney and obtain a Federal Civil Seizure Order. The seizure orders can be a very effective tool for a brand owner or venue operator to deal with the counterfeiters. The order must be obtained by counsel who obtains the order from a Federal Judge. The order will generally allow the attorney and his agents the authority to seize all goods they find in a certain area that are determined to be counterfeit. The particulars of any given order will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. It is important to consult a qualified intellectual property attorney when you are considering obtaining a seizure order.

The third way to deal with event enforcement is to have your team of investigators serve the offending vendors with cease and desist notices. During special events of this nature though, the cooperation level of these vendors is very low. The vendors have no true incentive to cooperate with your enforcement efforts if they are not facing seizure of their goods or criminal prosecution. The service of a notice is a much more effective tool on other types of vendors in different settings.