ENFORCEMENT

Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator
continued enhancement and development
of “best practices.” E-Commerce sites are
encouraged to maintain and publish clear takedown
procedures and statistics to aid rights
holders, deter repeat offenders, and support
meaningful and effective enforcement policies.
ACTION NO. 2.20: Support advanced,
technology-driven measures to curb illicit
accounts. E-Commerce platforms are encouraged
to adopt advanced technology measures to prevent
known offenders (including terminated sellers) from
opening new accounts, or jumping from platform
to platform. The wide-spread adoption of a ratings
system allowing the public to assess whether a
seller has any history of counterfeit violations (or
no transaction history at all) may prove useful in
improving consumer awareness and making it more
difficult for illicit actors to establish a long-term
business model or client-base.
ACTION NO. 2.21: Support enhanced
transparency and public reporting of
counterfeit incidents on e-commerce platforms.
In light of the potentially criminal nature of
counterfeit trade, consumers should have
access to the tools needed to assess the nature
and frequency of counterfeit incidents on an
e-commerce platform. Specifically:
ACTION NO. 2.22: Encourage development
of enhanced “know your seller” programs in
e-commerce channels. In order to minimize
the exploitation of e-commerce platforms by
entities engaged in the sale of counterfeit goods,
e-commerce platforms are encouraged to assess
the applicability of an appropriately tailored “know
your seller” program, where, for example, sellers
provide some measure of identity verification
before being able to sell products via the site.
Adoption of a voluntary multi-factor verification
system or other mechanism to support a “trusted”
seller program may curb illicit exploitation of
e-commerce channels, while providing consumers
additional tools in order to assess the risks
associated with any particular merchant.
ACTION NO. 2.23: Promote and expand
U.S. law enforcement partnerships with
e-commerce platforms to disrupt incidents of
fraud. The Department of Homeland Security—in
partnership with the FBI and law enforcement
agencies in the United States and abroad, as
appropriate—will continue to invest in and further
develop and promote its private sector outreach
programs to facilitate the sharing of information
with e-commerce sites on emerging trends,
criminal syndicates, and other relevant matters
to improve identification and disruption of illicit
trade and consumer fraud.
• Enhanced transparency and public reporting
of generalized and anonymized data regarding
counterfeit incidents on e-commerce platforms
provides an opportunity to educate consumers
and assist law enforcement, consumer
protection entities, policy-makers, and others
to understand better the scope of the issue,
while producing additional incentives to
ensure continued evolution of best practices.
• E-Commerce platforms are encouraged to
share complete selling history records to
law enforcement upon the identification of
a seller suspected of being engaged in
significant counterfeiting operations.
• IPEC—in partnership with the FBI, the IPR
Center, USPTO, USTR, and other relevant
Federal agencies—will assess opportunities to
support e-commerce transparency efforts.
D. SUPPORT RESPONSIBLE 3D PRINTING
COMMUNITIES AND BUSINESS MODELS.
Additive technology, also known as 3D printing, is
emerging as one of the most important transformative
changes in manufacturing processes and global supply
chains today. This evolving technology is offering the
promise of a manufacturing environment driven by
digital data. As one commentator noted, the move to
3D printing may be understood as a transformation from
a traditional supply chain that is hard ware-based to one
that is “software-defined.” 84
Unlike conventional or “subtractive” manufacturing
processes—such as drilling or milling that creates a
part by cutting away and removing material—additive
manufacturing builds a part by fusing materials
together, layer-by-layer, with heat, chemicals,
adhesives, or other methods. Additive manufacturing
has been employed in design and prototyping for
SECTION 2
79