The nightmare of international product piracy - Exploring defensive strategies

Intentionally copying the name, shape, or look of another product to steal that product's sales is pirating. The problems associated with this activit y range from the use of similar or sound alike names to the forgery of phar maceuticals to the production of fake auto and airplane replacement parts. Losses from these illegal and unethical practices are estimated to be $200 billion per year, and growing at a very fast pace. In this article, the we first discuss different types of piracy and then propose different ways of fighting these illegal activities. Among these are communication, legal, go vernment, direct contact, labeling proactive marketing, and using the pirac y as a part of promotional activity. The authors believe, above all, that p roactive marketing behavior may be the most powerful solution. Some of the other alternatives are extremely costly and are not equally effective. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.