MarkMonitor Announces Web Seminar Series to Empower Corporations With Counterfeit and Gray Market Insight

April 14, 2006; 05:36 AM
MarkMonitor(R), the leader in online corporate identity protection, today announced a three-part series of informative and thought provoking Web seminars -- featuring several industry experts -- that will address counterfeiting, gray market diversion, key issues, trends and recent events. Counterfeiting is widespread, growing and costs businesses more than $500 billion annually; Fortune 500 companies spend an average of $2 - 4 million per year to fight this global problem.

The Web seminar series will explore subject matter including business implications of the recently passed United States Anti-Counterfeiting Law (H.R. 32) and will stimulate lively discussions and questions from intellectual property and brand leaders worldwide. Featured speakers will share insights and reveal data surrounding trends in counterfeiting, gray market diversion and technology-centric solutions.

Brand owners, intellectual property (IP) attorneys, channel sales managers, e-commerce directors and other business professionals impacted by counterfeit and gray market distribution should consider attending this Web seminar series. The counterfeit problem worldwide is substantial and affects many industries including retail, electronics, consumer products, automotive, entertainment, healthcare and others. Professionals from these industries and more will find the Web seminar series to be highly informative and beneficial.

Speaker and Host Biographies:
Nils Montan is the new president of The International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC), effective May 1, 2006. IACC is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization devoted solely to combating product counterfeiting and piracy. Formed in 1979, today it is comprised of a cross section of business and industry from autos, apparel, luxury goods, and pharmaceuticals, to food, software and entertainment; IACC's members' combined annual revenues exceed $650 billion. The IACC develops and conducts training for domestic and foreign law enforcement officials, submits comments on intellectual property enforcement laws and regulations in the United States and abroad and participates in regional and international programs aimed at improving intellectual property enforcement standards. Montan, formerly Vice President of Senior Intellectual Property Counsel at Warner Bros., was with Warner Bros. since 1992, where he was responsible for protection of all aspects of intellectual property generated by the studio with emphasis on trademark.

David M. Hopkins is currently director of International Business Programs in the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver where he is tenured Associate Professor of Management. Dr. Hopkins was the second recipient of the Piccinati Endowed Professorship for Teaching Excellence. He was also selected in 1993 for the Fulbright International Education Administrators Program in Japan and Korea. He has over 30 years of college teaching in various areas of international business. He is a member of the Academy of International Business and other professional organizations. He is also on the Board of Directors of the World Trade Center in Denver. Dr. Hopkins has a Ph.D. and M.A. from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.S. and B.A. from Miami University.

Ian Lancaster founded Reconnaissance International, Ltd. and is its managing director. Reconnaissance has recently worked with the China Anti-Counterfeit Technology Association and the China Ministry of Public Security, which has recognized Ian Lancaster as a verified anti-counterfeiting expert. He addresses the questions that are or soon will be important to the anti-counterfeiting sector. He has many years' experience in security and anti-counterfeiting as well as all aspects of holography and undertaken many of Reconnaissance's major consulting contracts, including multi-client industry surveys, due diligence reports and business strategy development projects. Ian holds an honors degree and a postgraduate business studies diploma. Prior to joining Reconnaissance, he was founder/director of the hologram manufacturer Third Dimension Ltd, and later served as Executive Director of the Museum of Holography, New York. He is security-cleared by Interpol for access to some of its databases.

Mary Roach is the Web Seminar Series host and director of MarkMonitor's Counterfeit/Gray Market Business Unit. She brings over 15 years of marketing and management consulting experience from the Internet and wireless industries. Prior to MarkMonitor, Mary headed up product marketing and product management at Pronto Networks, a leading provider of carrier-class operations support systems for broadband wireless networks. She formerly drove the go-to-market strategy for Inktomi's OEM business line and launched several new products with tier-one hardware partners. Prior to Inktomi, Mary was a consultant with A.T. Kearney and Quattro Consulting. Mary began her career as a financial economist at Data Resources Inc, where she co-published monthly articles on the banking industry and forecasted key financial indicators. She has an M.B.A. in Strategy and Marketing from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. degree in Quantitative Economics from Tufts University.

About MarkMonitor
MarkMonitor is the global leader in delivering comprehensive online corporate identity protection services, with a focus on Making the Internet Safe for Business(TM). MarkMonitor's integrated Brand and Fraud Protection(TM) platform provides full life-cycle management, including early warning, real-time detection, and investigation and response, to a wide and growing list of identity-based online security problems faced by corporations today. These solutions are enabled by a comprehensive brand and fraud intelligence network that monitors for inappropriate or fraudulent use of a corporate name or identity anywhere in the Internet, including websites, search engines, major email systems, domain name systems, registries, message boards, blogs, chat rooms, and auctions. For more on MarkMonitor, please refer to www.markmonitor.com.