Brand: IP and Protection
Find Bad Guys. Track Them Across the Globe. Prove What They Did.
Before you can prosecute an infringer or counterfeiter you have to know they exist and find them.
Some of the largest technology and software companies in the world use AACG to find counterfeiters and intellectual property violators in the act, before brands were damaged, and intellectual property losses cut into sales. AACG also assists in prosecuting them. AACG combines AACG analytical technology and personnel with advanced degrees and understanding of statistics, computing, economics, internet protocols, networks, email tracing, and the Internet of Things (IOT) to provide cloud-based software and consulting services. AACG’s cloud-based software and/or consulting services allow you to quickly identify anomalous behavior, review it, and start tracking perpetrators who are misusing or counterfeiting your on-line IP and branded physical products.
AACG provides innovative analytical models and the people (wetware) who know how to use them to develop monitoring, detecting and tracking systems.
Technology and Services
Analytical Technology/Artificial Intelligence for On-line IP
- User Behavior “Finger Printing”
- Downloading Patterns, Web Page Traversing Patterns, Time of Day, IP Address, Login ID Analysis, Product Analysis, Time of Day, Country, Language, Related Aliases
- Social Network Analysis
- Corporate Records Analysis
- Data Mining
- Identifying Individual Acts and Evidence / Statistical Proof of Wider Patterns
Patrolling the Perimeter for Counterfeiters
- Monitoring Systems that evolve with illegal use patterns
- Sampling and review protocols that evolve and hold up in court
- Wholesaler/Retailer patterns: Geographic and Temporal
- Aberrant sales/price pattern detection
Selected Experience
AACG has helped major technology firms from the early stage of detecting copyright infringers on corporate servers to finding their internet aliases and physical locations.
Detection Systems: Copyright On-Line Products
For a major technology firm, AACG has developed a counterfeit detection system. The system performed two main functions. First, it analyzes statistically valid samples of products for counterfeits. Some of the sampled items are random, some are focused on “hot spots” previously detected.
The system also monitors sales and prices to detect anomalous changes at wholesalers/resellers to detect where there are drops in sales that are not explainable by historical patterns, contemporaneous market trends or factors.
The detection system evolves over time, initially focusing on specific resellers/wholesalers that have the greatest likelihood of handling counterfeit items. At the same time, the system canvasses the market of wholesalers/resellers through the use of random samples to detect developing counterfeiters.
Detection Systems: Counterfeit Branded Products
For major technology company, AACG developed a monitoring system to assess the probability that individual products were counterfeit. The projects used samples of products to develop the probabilities of counterfeit activity by individual product characteristics. The method of developing the risk scores were then tested on other samples to determine the quality of the risk scoring methods.
The method can be used on an ongoing basis, learning over time, to improve the quality of the counterfeit detection even as counterfeiters’ methods product choices and sales patterns change over time.
Copyright Infringement
Copyright on the Web
For a major manufacturer of home goods, AACG analyzed claims of copyright infringement related to web presence, social media and user-generated content websites. The analysis involved capturing and analyzing web-related content and quantifying damages based on the impact this content had on sales for individual products and the company as a whole.
Copyright in Computer Code
AACG provided expert support for Oracle in its copyright infringement case against SAP. AACG experts provided statistical analysis and rebuttal testimony related to marginal costs of production and damage. The analysis involved developing statistical samples of copyrighted material to review and then providing an estimate of the total number of copyright infringements based on a statistical extrapolation from the sample to the population as a whole. At the core of the marginal cost analysis was AACG’s review of a regression analysis performed by another expert, and a demonstration that an over-reaching restriction in that regression analysis caused bias in the results so severe as to completely invalidate them.
In a second copyright case, AACG investigated the prevalence of copyright infringement involving computer code that was downloaded by the infringing company from the copyright owner’s website. AACG developed the statistical sampling process to randomly select specific instances of recorded downloads for review of copyright infringement. Based on the findings from the scientific sample, AACG provided estimates of the number of incidents of copyright infringement.
Misappropriation of Proprietary Computer Program
In a case involving the theft of a computer program, AACG developed estimates of the costs that would have been associated with the construction of alternative software that would not have infringed the copyrighted code. The research included a detailed analysis of the costs required to construct the original code, including research and development, hardware, coding, maintenance and ongoing enhancements.
Copyright Infringement through Video Postings
In a dispute involving a claim of copyright infringement of video material posted to a website, AACG performed statistical analysis to determine the extent of the infringement, including the number of views. As part of the analysis, AACG investigated whether there was any scientifically valid reason that the results of a sampled population by plaintiffs’ statistician could be extended beyond the population from which the sample was taken.