Epic Rights, a leading music merchandising and branding company, and counterfeit software leader CounterFind have teamed to combat counterfeit merchandise and pave the way for online brand protection within the music industry.
Epic Rights represents KISS, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Lionel Richie, Billy Joel, Woodstock Festival, and the Estates of John Lennon and David Bowie.
“In the past five years, online counterfeiting of artist merchandise has grown explosively worldwide, confusing fans with inferior product and unapproved designs, and with the artist losing sales. Until now, there have been no real tools developed to fight it,” said Jesper Poulsen, Epic Rights SVP, Artist & Brand Development. “We are excited to be joining CounterFind in bringing real solutions to this global issue.”
CounterFind is the leader in fighting and eliminating counterfeit merchandise for sports and entertainment trademark-holders on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. CounterFind’s software not only finds all ads marketing counterfeit, but also shuts them down in real time. Human intelligence paired with image recognition and a complex filtering formula enable CounterFind’s technology to learn counterfeiters’ new marketing tactics as they develop.
“We are excited to be joining CounterFind in bringing real solutions to this global issue.”
“Print on demand platforms have gotten away with allowing counterfeiters to use the name and likeness of artists for far too long,” CounterFind Founder Darren Woodson says. “It’s important to remove all the counterfeit sold online because fans normally can’t tell the difference between a legitimate product that supports their favorite band, and one that hurts them.”
With the explosion of online retailers who fulfill print-on-demand orders, the world’s largest brands in sports, entertainment and luxury are losing more than $135 billion dollars per year in lost revenue due to the sale of counterfeit goods.
In June, Kendall and Kylie Jenner were caught selling non sanctioned vintage rock T-shirts with various Instagram images superimposed over the likeness of Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Pink Floyd, the Doors, Kiss and Led Zeppelin. The pair were selling the shirts for $125 each, featuring the logo “Repurposed in the USA.”
The girls received major backlash from representatives of the artists involved including some proposed lawsuits from The Doors and the Estate of Notorious B.I.G. The shirts were immediately pulled and the girls apologized.
