imagingsuppliescoalition@gmail.com

CHECK SUSPICIOUS PRODUCTS

Have doubts whether or not your printing and imaging supplies are authentic? The ISC is here to help you.
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Combating Counterfeiting, Patent Infringement & Fraud

We are an organization dedicated to educating, empowering and protecting consumers to combat counterfeiting and fraud in the imaging supplies industry.
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RT Media Recognizes the ISC With Its
2020 Anticounterfeiting Award

Recycling Times Media in conjunction with the 2020 ReMax World Expo presented its annual anticounterfeiting award to the Imaging Supplies Coalition. This award is given to the ISC for its tireless leadership over 25 + years to uphold intellectual property rights and mitigate patent infringing supplies products through its education programs with US Customs and Border Protection, an MOU signed with Amazon, its focus on supporting government activities and the support of its member companies having strong brand protection programs.
In commenting on the award, Allen Westerfield, ISC President stated:

" I want to thank the RT Media and the judges from across the imaging supplies industry for selecting the ISC to receive this award for
the 6th consecutive year. We pledge to continue our efforts to protect our customers from infringing imaging supplies products."

Welcome to Imaging Supplies Coalition

 
As you visit our site, you will learn about our mission, programs and successes. You will also learn ways to protect your business and yourself from the harm caused by counterfeit goods and fraud. It is the view of the ISC and its member companies that counterfeiting is a real threat to global markets and consumers. The ISC is a non-profit trade association comprised of original equipment manufacturers of consumable imaging supplies (ribbons, toner, inks, cartridges, etc.) and equipment that have joined together to protect their customers by combating illegal activities in the Imaging Supplies Industry.
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Click the logos to view brand protection information.

How do I avoid buying a counterfeit product?

Commercial product counterfeiting of trademarked and copyrighted merchandise is a multi-billion dollar parasite on international business.
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What is a counterfeit product?

American law defines counterfeiting as the infringement of a trademark. More generally it means making something out to be a branded item when it is not. Counterfeiting is often thought of as forging or copying currency, documents, music or works of art, but actually it can refer to any item where IP rights in the form of Patents, Copyrights or Trademarks held by the creator and developer of the item are violated.
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Did You Know?

 

The Food and Drug Administration estimates that counterfeit drugs account for 10% of all drugs sold in the United States.

The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was largely financed through the sale of counterfeit goods, such as fake Nike T-shirts sold from a store on Broadway.

Counterfeiting has been linked to terrorist groups and organized crime. Among the groups linked are Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Chechen separatists, North African radical fundamentalists, and knwon terrorists groups in Kosovo and Northern Ireland.

Counterfeiting and piracy are directly responsible for the loss of more than 750,000 American Jobs. From auto workers in Michigan to computer programmers in California to factory workers in Ohio, counterfeiting and piracy affect real people and cost real jobs.

The ISC estimates that the scope of Imaging Consumables Counterfeit Activity is 3.5% to 4%. This represents a cost of over $3 billion.

Counterfeiting is a growth industry. Since 1982, the global trade in illegitimate goods has increased from $5.5 billion to approximately $600 billion annually.

Counterfeiting costs the global economy approximately $650 billion per year. Approximately 5% - 7% of the world trade is in counterfeit goods. Nearly every company in every industry is vulnerable.

The Federal Aviation Administration estimates that 2% of the 26 million airline parts installed each year are counterfeit, which equals approximately 520,000 parts.

  • April 17th, 2023

IMAGING SUPPLIES COALITION MEMBERS WORK TOGETHER WITH AMAZON ON JOINT LAWSUIT

A joint lawsuit has been filed by Amazon.com, in conjunction with Imaging Supplies Coalition (ISC) members, Lexmark and Xerox, to combat the sale of counterfeit toner cartridges on the Amazon platform. The suit alleges the defendants advertised, marketed, offered and sold a variety of counterfeit Lexmark and Xerox cartridges that violate the brands’ respective registered trademarks.
 
The suit filed in US District Court for the Western District of Washington names three individuals, as well as two US-based companies and one company based in the United Kingdom. The companies worked together with the Amazon Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) to develop this investigation and bring the case to trial.

Counterfeit cartridges were identified via test purchases made on the Amazon.com platform as part of the Lexmark and Xerox online brand protection activities. 

The Imaging Supplies Coalition exists to allow its members to work together to combat intellectual property violations in the imaging supplies industry. Amazon and the ISC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2019 to enable the parties to join forces to improve the sharing of best practices, to create a partnership to combat counterfeiting and to foster a collaborative environment to protect the customer. 

Andrew Gardner, ISC Chairman and Lexmark Global Brand Protection Manager stated, “This joint litigation is a result of the close collaboration between ISC members and Amazon and was greatly facilitated by the presence of the MOU. The ISC values its partnership with Amazon and looks forward to strengthening this relationship.”

Amazon’s CCU works closely with law enforcement and brand partners around the world to investigate illicit trade activity. It has filed a series of lawsuits against counterfeiters in partnership with brands such as GoPro, Cartier, Valentino, Salvatore Ferragamo, and many others.
  • January 5th, 2023

New US INFORM Consumers Act Imposes Seller Diligence and Disclosure Requirements for Online Marketplaces

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The ICCE publishes postion paper on the US - uk trade agreement urging intellectual property protection for counterfeit ink and toner cartridges
 
July 29, 2019
 
ISC submits document to US Department of Commerce in response to the request for comments on “Counterfeit and Pirated Goods Trafficking Effect on eCommerce”.
 
 

April 21, 2021 

ISC Reaffirms Support of  the Shop Safe Act of 2020

The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced today that the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the first quarter of 2020 was $160.3 billion, an increase of 2.4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2019. The first quarter 2020 e-commerce estimate increased 14.8 percent from the first quarter of 2019 while total retail sales increased 2.1 percent in the same period. E-commerce sales in the first quarter of 2020 accounted for 11.8 percent of total sales. According to data from Adobe's digital economic index e-commerce jumped 49% in April, compared to the baseline period in early March before shelter-in-place restrictions went into effect. With the effect of the corona virus E-commerce will continue to grow even more rapidly and is likely to change purchasing behavior permanently. Therefore, it will become increasingly important to ensure that consumers have a safe E-commerce marketplace.

While some E-commerce market places have done much to eliminate IPR infringing and dangerous products from their platforms much more can and should be done. The Imaging Supplies Coalition supports the passage of the Shop Safe Act of 2020 which will greatly assist with the needed improvements.

Click here to see the latest letter that ISC sent to the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.

Click here to review a summary of the bill and its status in Congress.

  • February 10th, 2020

ISC Continues Training With discussions with the CBP Machinery CEE and Training at Port

On July 10, 2019, members of the ISC held its quarterly meeting with the Machinery CEE in conjunction with the CEE’s annual supervisory meeting. J. J. Perez, Director of the Machinery CEE and his supervisory personnel were in attendance at the meeting. Discussed were methods of more effective GEO and anti-counterfeit training for CEE and port personnel. Enforcement results, targeting and analysis information were also exchanged. Feedback was also provided from the training sessions the ISC held at the IPR Branch in DC and the training sessions in Middleburg Heights and Jacksonville. Additional training sessions were conducted at the ports of LA, Long Beach and the LAX Air Cargo Facility. On Feb. 6 and 7 training was conducted at the ports of Seattle, Tacoma and Blaine.

Both the ISC and the CBP CEE believe these quarterly meetings and port training sessions are quite effective in improving our joint efforts in protecting the IP Rights of our members.

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ABOUT US
We are an organization dedicated to educating, empowering and protecting consumers to combat counterfeiting and fraud in the imaging supplies industry.
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imagingsuppliescoalition@gmail.com