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ENFORCEMENT

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Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator<br />

continued enhancement and development<br />

of “best practices.” E-Commerce sites are<br />

encouraged to maintain and publish clear takedown<br />

procedures and statistics to aid rights<br />

holders, deter repeat offenders, and support<br />

meaningful and effective enforcement policies.<br />

ACTION NO. 2.20: Support advanced,<br />

technology-driven measures to curb illicit<br />

accounts. E-Commerce platforms are encouraged<br />

to adopt advanced technology measures to prevent<br />

known offenders (including terminated sellers) from<br />

opening new accounts, or jumping from platform<br />

to platform. The wide-spread adoption of a ratings<br />

system allowing the public to assess whether a<br />

seller has any history of counterfeit violations (or<br />

no transaction history at all) may prove useful in<br />

improving consumer awareness and making it more<br />

difficult for illicit actors to establish a long-term<br />

business model or client-base.<br />

ACTION NO. 2.21: Support enhanced<br />

transparency and public reporting of<br />

counterfeit incidents on e-commerce platforms.<br />

In light of the potentially criminal nature of<br />

counterfeit trade, consumers should have<br />

access to the tools needed to assess the nature<br />

and frequency of counterfeit incidents on an<br />

e-commerce platform. Specifically:<br />

ACTION NO. 2.22: Encourage development<br />

of enhanced “know your seller” programs in<br />

e-commerce channels. In order to minimize<br />

the exploitation of e-commerce platforms by<br />

entities engaged in the sale of counterfeit goods,<br />

e-commerce platforms are encouraged to assess<br />

the applicability of an appropriately tailored “know<br />

your seller” program, where, for example, sellers<br />

provide some measure of identity verification<br />

before being able to sell products via the site.<br />

Adoption of a voluntary multi-factor verification<br />

system or other mechanism to support a “trusted”<br />

seller program may curb illicit exploitation of<br />

e-commerce channels, while providing consumers<br />

additional tools in order to assess the risks<br />

associated with any particular merchant.<br />

ACTION NO. 2.23: Promote and expand<br />

U.S. law enforcement partnerships with<br />

e-commerce platforms to disrupt incidents of<br />

fraud. The Department of Homeland Security—in<br />

partnership with the FBI and law enforcement<br />

agencies in the United States and abroad, as<br />

appropriate—will continue to invest in and further<br />

develop and promote its private sector outreach<br />

programs to facilitate the sharing of information<br />

with e-commerce sites on emerging trends,<br />

criminal syndicates, and other relevant matters<br />

to improve identification and disruption of illicit<br />

trade and consumer fraud.<br />

• Enhanced transparency and public reporting<br />

of generalized and anonymized data regarding<br />

counterfeit incidents on e-commerce platforms<br />

provides an opportunity to educate consumers<br />

and assist law enforcement, consumer<br />

protection entities, policy-makers, and others<br />

to understand better the scope of the issue,<br />

while producing additional incentives to<br />

ensure continued evolution of best practices.<br />

• E-Commerce platforms are encouraged to<br />

share complete selling history records to<br />

law enforcement upon the identification of<br />

a seller suspected of being engaged in<br />

significant counterfeiting operations.<br />

• IPEC—in partnership with the FBI, the IPR<br />

Center, USPTO, USTR, and other relevant<br />

Federal agencies—will assess opportunities to<br />

support e-commerce transparency efforts.<br />

D. SUPPORT RESPONSIBLE 3D PRINTING<br />

COMMUNITIES AND BUSINESS MODELS.<br />

Additive technology, also known as 3D printing, is<br />

emerging as one of the most important transformative<br />

changes in manufacturing processes and global supply<br />

chains today. This evolving technology is offering the<br />

promise of a manufacturing environment driven by<br />

digital data. As one commentator noted, the move to<br />

3D printing may be understood as a transformation from<br />

a traditional supply chain that is hard ware-based to one<br />

that is “software-defined.” 84<br />

Unlike conventional or “subtractive” manufacturing<br />

processes—such as drilling or milling that creates a<br />

part by cutting away and removing material—additive<br />

manufacturing builds a part by fusing materials<br />

together, layer-by-layer, with heat, chemicals,<br />

adhesives, or other methods. Additive manufacturing<br />

has been employed in design and prototyping for<br />

SECTION 2<br />

79

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