KRIONI detectives at the Skolkovo Innovation Centre

KRIONI detectives at the Skolkovo Innovation Centre

On 19 September 2019, the Skolkovo Innovation Centre hosted IP Academy, an international educational conference on intellectual property, where KRIONI detectives delivered a special workshop entitled “How IP agents and detectives collaborate to gather evidence and documentation on the illegal use of trademarks”. 

The audience included leading players in the Russian and international IP market: specialists from government agencies, judges, legal practitioners, IP agents, lawyers, and industry experts. The detectives sought to communicate to their esteemed audience that, when gathering information and documentation indicating the unlawful use of trademarks and patents, it is better to seek the assistance of a specialist in private investigation – a detective. As a ‘warm-up’ for their workshop, the detectives presented photographs from their own investigations, together with charts showing methods of collecting and presenting evidence for use in court.

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We spent a great deal of time preparing for this event, and hope that our presentation was engaging and compelling. Photographs from the workshop clearly show the response we received from participants.

KRIONI detectives also took part in a discussion on “Protecting trademark rights: counterfeits and parallel imports”, which was devoted to the problem of parallel imports in Russia and protecting entrepreneurs from unfair competition and consumers from poor quality products.

These issues prompt many and varied discussions between theorists and practitioners. 

It was hot, and there were a lot of questions to answer. But we don’t get tired. In our view, it is exactly this kind of ‘academic’ meeting between detectives and potential clients that enables us to address two strategic challenges simultaneously: firstly, unlocking the full commercial potential of those market participants who are engaged in the fight against counterfeiting and forgery not only in word, but also in deed; and secondly, making use of an effective and practical means of promoting private investigative services in a healthy and honest manner.

It’s what we have been striving to do throughout our many years of practice since 2003.