Here’s an overview of the scope of global counterfeit trade, as well as what a few companies in one industry -electrical goods -have been doing to protect their intellectual property and, more importantly, the health and safety of product end-users. The second article in this series, published March 10, 2008, will focus on the changing face of product liability in regard to both counterfeits and private label.

Square D, best known in the U.S. as the flagship brand for the Schneider Electric North American Operation Division, realized there might be a problem with counterfeiting of its circuit breakers when the manufacturer started seeing an increase in defective product returns.

When we would go to check the returned product, we would find out they were …