Intellectual Property Protection and Enforcement Manual - Ipr-policy.eu

Brand Protection Manual
Johnson & Johnson & Co., Inc.
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is the world’s most comprehensive and broad-based manufacturer
of health care products and related services for the consumer, pharmaceutical, and medical
devices and diagnostics markets. More than 250 Johnson & Johnson operating companies
employ approximately 121,000 people in 57 countries and sell products throughout the world.
The fundamental objective of Johnson & Johnson is to provide scientifically sound, highquality
products and services.
For Johnson & Johnson, protecting its products from counterfeiting is a top priority—but not
its first. As David Howard, director, Product Protection, Global Brand Integrity says, “We have
a single focus; it’s called our company credo. It maintains that our first priority is the men and
women, the patients, and the doctors. The entire brand integrity effort is built around reassuring
and protecting the source of supply of goods to users and consumers.” So J&J’s focus
becomes how it can accomplish this goal through product development, packaging, sourcing,
and distribution networks.
The Johnson & Johnson Team
J&J has three market segments: consumer, medical device and diagnostics, and medicines and
nutritionals. Within these market segments are team members and organizations dedicated to
brand integrity activities. For example, the medical device and diagnostics team, led by a vice
president of brand integrity, includes dedicated individuals focusing on product and packaging
protection technologies; a person who handles supply chain integrity and channel management;
and an employee dedicated to market monitoring and enforcement. The Johnson & Johnson
team also has representatives from each of the corporate entities—legal, regulatory affairs,
communications, corporate security, and trademarks. The diversity of talent and background
leverages each team’s ability to develop a successful brand integrity operation, including anticounterfeiting
strategies.
Risk Liability
Authentication and tracking technology for J&J are a means to an end. They are part of a comprehensive
effort to protect its customers from dangerous and defective counterfeit products. To
effectively decide how to best protect a product, J&J developed an assessment tool that asks 35
questions specific to that product, focusing on the potential risk of counterfeiting. Based on the
assessment, the product is then processed through a scoring system that awards points for the
number of covert protection features. “The goal is to develop overt and covert features that best
meet the needs of the individual product at risk,” says Howard. “The scoring of authentication
features considers form factor of the item being protected as well as product and packaging
dynamics. The closer you can get product protection features to the product, the easier it is to
authenticate.” This system is available to all J&J’s operating companies to analyze risk potential
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