Legal tech company SnapDragon Monitoring has received a Queen’s Award for Innovation, one of Britain’s most prestigious business accolades.
SnapDragon Monitoring was born out of its founder’s experience of fighting fake products when her baby product was counterfeited, and her thriving business brought to near ruin.
The award recognizes SnapDragon Monitoring’s success in giving companies, large and small, the tools needed to monitor and fight fakes on the world’s busiest online marketplaces and social media stores.
Originally designed for SME’s but now used by major brands and representatives around the world, SnapDragon Monitoring’s “Swoop” platform searches for copies and counterfeits of products and brands, so that they can be removed from sale. Links that are identified as infringing can be removed in a little as four minutes. Additionally, intelligence gathered during this monitoring process can provide crucial evidence for further legal proceedings.
SnapDragon’s Rachel Jones comments: “This is a hugely positive and exciting day for us all, particularly while everyone is in lockdown, and must be celebrated.
“My humble but heartfelt thanks go to our extraordinary team for working tirelessly with the ever-fluid international marketplaces in the fight against fakes. Developing technology is no mean feat but the fact we now have something which empowers brands, of all shapes and sizes, to use intellectual property as their first line of defense online, which is fantastic.
“Recognition for innovation with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise will undoubtedly strengthen our position as a leading player in the online brand protection market – about which we are thrilled.
“Our software allows for the identification of opportunities for new filings, as well as litigation, and we are proud to partner with many of the best lawyers and IP firms in this industry.”
Highlighting the seriousness of the problem, Rachel said: “Fake products contribute over 3.3% to world trade each year and it’s a problem which isn’t going away. Organizations that may have believed supply chains were under control need to look twice at the issue of parallel production, which is anything but ‘under control’.
“Child labor, unsafe materials, and poor-quality goods are commonplace with counterfeits, and it’s every brand’s responsibility to prevent these products, which pretend to be genuine, from getting into the hands of the customer. What brands may not realize is that sales made from counterfeits fund organized crime, such as trafficking. In identifying fakes online, and removing them from sale on the pertinent platforms, we prevent their visibility and subsequent purchase, export, import, and distribution.”
