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

at the early stages of research and development and
marketed products to build risk deterrents into each
product and its packaging.
Product Protection
With more than 250 operating companies, the
counterfeiting teams collaborate on the importance
of implementing protection at the research and
development stage and take multiple steps to protect
their brands. Layering technologies is one of the
primary tactics J&J uses to safeguard its products.
Both overt and covert technologies are used to mark
a legitimate product. Howard explains, “I’m going to
pick a pharmaceutical bottle as an example. We may
have overt and covert features integrated into a label for
the bottle. We may have overt and covert features in
the introduction seal of the bottle itself or in the cap.
A single layer simply doesn’t offer the protection we
believe is necessary. We also don’t use the same
protection at each layer. Mixing technologies such as
molecular markers, color-shifting ink, and even font
shifts or changes in graphics provides for a much more
robust line of defense.”
When looking for a technology supplier, Johnson
& Johnson’s first concern stems from its credo. The
company wants to ensure that as it works hard to
protect consumers and products, its affiliates are good
to their people, the environment, and have a concern
for consumer protection. Beyond that, Howard says,
“With the brand integrity elements, we want to make
sure that suppliers have a strong knowledge base. We
also want to make sure that they have the ability to supply
to people who hold even higher security levels than
we may think of, such as companies that produce bank
notes and secure papers. Those are the types of suppliers
that understand the importance and the nature of
maintaining confidentiality in their secure products.”
operating procedure for all its operating companies. This
plan will be based on current successful efforts put into
place by the monitoring and enforcement person in each
of the three market sectors. It includes educating groups
in the field—doctors, nurses, law enforcement officials,
customs officials, distributors, supply chain partners,
security groups, and other parties that handle J&J’s
products.
Measuring the benefits of authentication technology
and brand protection tactics is easier said than done.
According to Howard, “It’s very difficult from our
perspective to accurately gauge how big a counterfeiting
or diversion problem is across a company the size of
J&J.” Ultimately, however, measuring performance based
on anything other than protecting the patient doesn’t
really have a payback.
The Road Ahead
Moving forward, Johnson & Johnson will continue to
evaluate and reconfigure its technologies to stay ahead of
the counterfeiters. Howard says, “We try to make people
aware that if they have a technology that could have an
application in our industry we will give them an
opportunity to educate us.” J&J also tries to introduce
nonassociated companies, whose technologies may benefit
from one another. This further promotes combining
tactics for ultimate protection. Howard concludes, “You
have to immerse yourself in this issue. You have got to
get in and be willing to work and listen to make it
really happen.”
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The Rollout
J&J is in the process of developing a technology
rollout and education plan that will be standard