My IPCybercrime Boot Camp has been well-received all over North America and in Europe. Whether you are an investigator by trade, a paralegal, a lawyer or a small business person you will benefit greatly from taking this all-day course.
My class is the only class of its kind. Instead of teaching the traditional parlor tricks we focus on my proprietary techniques and philosophy that are universal in all aspects of investigation. The Internet has been my territory for almost two decades and I can teach you to navigate it better than ever before!
Sport fishing is a $125 billion dollar industry. No matter how good man gets at it, he is nothing compared to the Alaskan grizzly bear. At first glance you would describe one of these formidable creatures as large brutes. But let me tell you something. Although most of us know that this so-called brute is a fast runner, many folks don’t know that this beautiful creature is so agile, patient and graceful that they can catch Salmon with their teeth even when their quarry is swimming at full speed.
Graham admits, “I know that I’m not smarter than you.”
Lecktor then inquires, “Then how did you catch me?”
”You had disadvantages.”, says Graham.
Lecktor asks, “What disadvantages?”
Graham replies, “You’re insane.”
It is common for a detective or criminologist to state that, in order to catch a criminal, you must think like a criminal. It is not only unnecessary to think like the criminal, it is imperative that you do not. You don’t think like a criminal and you don’t want to. You hunt them. Their values are different than yours. Their brain works differently than yours. In order to catch a criminal, you must think like someone who catches criminals.
In your career you have investigated hundreds of bad guys. You are smart with years of investigative experience and an above average IQ. But you do not, by any means, believe you are smarter than every one of the people you investigate. You think differently than they do. Your desires, motives and goals are different than theirs. You know that your advantage is that you do not think like them. Good. Don’t think like them. Hunt them.
[NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: The below article was written by an impressive high school student who interns at our office. I wanted to give him a shot at expressing his views of IP and what he is learning to the Community. I am hoping this will give you insight into the minds of the younger tech generation, as well as give Mason a chance to see what some of you think.]
This is my first guest post here on Knockoff Report so I think I should introduce myself. My name is Mason Pelt and I am an intern at the intellectual property firm IPCybercrime.com. I also own a small production company. As a result I’m highly opinionated when it comes to intellectual property. People create things. It’s one of the things that make people awesome. People steal things. It’s one of the things that stink about people. I, as I’m sure most people do, think creating things is good. Think about it. People created most of the awesome stuff that fills our lives. People even made a lot of the stuff we all take for granted. When I got up this morning, I brushed my teeth. I used a toothbrush instead of a stick because, at some point, someone realized a need and created the tool “The Toothbrush”. According to the American Dental Association, the first toothbrush was crafted in 1498 by an emperor in China who did so using hog bristles and a bone handle. Now, when that Chinese emperor made the first toothbrush it physically existed as an object. If someone had taken the toothbrush it would have been clear-cut theft. The lines, however, became blurred if you talk about the Intellectual property of the toothbrush. Could I, as someone working in the palace in 1498, see the idea and make my own? What about making toothbrushes for friends? How about selling the toothbrush as if it were my own idea? Which of the previous things are theft? My point is that theft is simple in the world of matter (Did you take something that wasn’t yours?). But, in the world of ideas, theft is not so simple to understand, and it becomes anything but simple to define, if you talk something like art. Art borrows ideas, tweaks them, remixes them and changes them in many ways that make it hard to clearly define the theft of an idea. The fashion industry is a great example of this. My pockets are sewn inside my paints. Odds are good that yours are too. We no longer keep a bag tied to a belt. Clothing evolves. I used to work with a company that did photography and videos for one of the largest clothing retailers in the US, and many brands of clothing looked very similar. With any brand, we took pictures of shirts looked like shirts and graphic tees that had similar designs. That’s not so much intellectual property theft as it’s just how art works.
In music, something that has been pent-up in litigation, for decades now, is the song “Kookaburra,” by Marion Sinclair, vs “Land Down Under,” by Men At Work. The first 7 notes or so of “Land Down Under” are a direct steal from “Kookaburra,” and then the tempo completely changes. This could be considered theft or just an homage to the most famous Australian song ever. The bottom line is, I can find hundreds of songs that sound similar. It’s how things like Pandora radio work. But, more than just that, you can listen to a song from a specific time period and hear how music has changed over the years. It’s grown. Genres have developed. And that is, in part, due to a healthy degree of plagiarism on the part of everyone.
If you look at movies, it’s the same thing. Certain stylistic things just catch on. I love the TV show M*A*S*H (Largely because Alan Alda is completely brilliant, but I digress). One of the trademarks of the show (not literally a trademark) was the ending. Every show would freeze frame and play a slide show of still frames taken from that episode. It was a very distinct look– so distinctive that it likely could have been trademarked. The technique later became fairly common and has since fallen out of use, more or less. And, I have to mention color. Watch some movies and notice the trends. Horror films usually have a blue tint. Apocalyptic movies are gray and washed out. It’s so common Cracked.com made fun of that in a post called 5 Annoying Trends That Make Every Movie Look the Same.
Like I said, art borrows ideas, tweaks them, remixes them and changes. I’d like to refer you the Everything is a Remix podcast. It’s well put together and worth watching. They cover both the need to protect intellectual property and why it becomes so difficult to do just that. All I’m really trying to say is, intellectual property theft is not as clear as we sometimes treat it. When it comers to Patents, Copyrights and even Trademarks, it’s a blurred line between infringement and progress.
Ten years ago on this date you may have seen a goofball driving down Washington Boulevard in Culver City blasting the Tom Petty song ‘Free Falling’ while joyfully singing out the car window as if he were Tom Cruise in ‘Jerry Maguire‘. That was me. The reason for this occasion was that, just like the title character of the aforementioned film, I quit my job with no safety net or certain future in order to start my own business.
Six years prior to that, I married the love of my life. Believe it or not, the anniversary of our marriage doesn’t equate to me as much as the day I told my wife that we were never going to have to have jobs again. I stopped off at the grocery store on the corner of Doheny and Beverly and came home with that chilled ten-dollar bottle of California sparkling wine.
Rob at work in 2001
I began my company in the kitchen of my one-bedroom apartment on Oakhurst Drive in Beverly Hills. All I had was a desk, a fax machine, and a computer that I assembled myself from scraps. I spent the next week or two learning Quickbooks. During this time I attended the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition’s Fall Meeting in Las Vegas. This was the first time I showed up in public as Rob Holmes, proprietor. Just as for my father before me, this organization and its members are my family and home. I look forward to spending my tenth IACC Fall Meeting in Orlando with these fine people.
Since 2001 I have carved a niche for myself in the areas of Intellectual Property and the Internet. I catch bad guys and get paid for it. Half of the time I’m sitting on my ass at Starbucks. Life is good. Thanks to all of you who have made this a possibility for me. I love you all. Let’s have another great decade.
This morning my wife and business partner Nastassia mentioned something while we were enjoying our morning coffee ritual. Capital One Bank has moved into Cityville. Yes, she plays the Zynga game Cityville on Facebook along with hundreds of millions of others, most of whom are over the age of thirty.
Ever since the initial popularity of virtual worlds like World of Warcraft, The Sims and Second Life I have anticipated that virtual goods will replace, or at least enhance, the public’s interest in designer goods in the real world. Until these Facebook games took the world by storm, the idea of virtual gaming was only for the geeky. The folks who enveloped themselves in a world of fictional characters and rode dragons. But not anymore. Now, people are growing farms, raising families, fighting mafia wars and playing poker with friends near and far. And it’s as effortless as checking their email. But twice as fun. The way Cityville works, as you may figure, the player creates a working town and maintains it and builds it while their friends get points/credits for participating. Participating can be as simple as visiting and as complicated as directing a tour bus from your town to theirs to direct revenue to your friend’s city.
Until recently, each establishment in your city would require you to choose a name for it. For example, she added a coffee shop and called it RobBucks in honor of her Starbucks enthusiast husband. No trademarks, just make-believe business names. Last month she told me that Best Buy had moved into town and I, being a Best Buy enthusiast as well, got a little giddy. These items are currently free but there are tons of items within the game that cost money. It may cost a measly dollar to repair your car, or put on nice rims. Perhaps an extra five dollars to buy more land. Soon, we will be paying for Nike sneakers, Budweiser t-shirts and MacBooks. Don’t scoff at this. The Chinese market alone for these types of ‘microtransactions’ has eclipsed the $10 Billion mark and the USA is right behind.
I predict that these virtual establishments will soon lead to real online shopping outlets offering both physical and virtual goods creating revenue streams previously unimaginable. These games will soon be creating tens of billions of dollars of advertising and sales revenue for legitimate brands. Folks, this world is about to explode and we’re in the middle of it. If you are a trademark geek like I am, get excited. This is our industrial revolution.
Last week I attended the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, which boasted attendance of 25,000 people in Salt Lake City, Utah. On Day One, I was having lunch with a colleague, Andrew Love of Specialized Bicycles who was telling me of his upcoming panel at the IQPC Anti-Counterfeiting & Brand Protection Summit in New York on September 27th. He was telling me that he is going to be presenting with representatives from DuPont and demonstrating many of the methods that fraudsters use to try to get one over on his company. Andrew’s story is a very inspiring one. He is a professional speed skater by trade and, like most avid winter athletes, is located in Salt Lake City. He began working for Specialized some time ago and, through his own curiosity and need to help his customers, realized that a brand protection department was needed within his company. Since this occurrence, Andrew single-handedly created a brand protection department at his company and is an ambassador for the entire bicycling industry in this field. I am excited to see what he will present on his panel in NYC next month.
On Day Two, I presented on a panel with another colleague Mr. Rich Halverson who is the Unit Chief at the United States IPR Center in DC. Over dinner later that evening, Rich was telling me of the Center’s most recent activities which included bringing on more international partners and seizures in the real and virtual worlds. Turns out he too will be also be presenting at the IQPC Anti-Counterfeiting & Brand Protection Summit in New York on September 27th.
I’ve been a fan of IQPC and have partnered with them over the last couple of years. I am actually a media sponsor of this particular event. I am also a member of the great associations that support anti-counterfeiting and brand protection efforts. This industry, and the need for this type of work, is increasing at an ever-growing speed. I’m glad IQPC is there to pick up the slack and give these great associations the support they need.
One of the things I teach in my investigation classes is the importance of being able to manage the data you acquire throughout many investigations. Unfortunately, there is nothing suitable on the market to help you do so — until now. I have been working closely with a company called TrackVia to make my in-house database available for sale to the public. This new product (aptly named Case Ninja) is exactly what we use at IPCybercrime. I am giving a free webinar to promote this new amazing product at 2pm EDT on Wednesday July 15th. Oh, and we’re giving away a free iPad to one of you.
Online investigations has become the most needed and desired skill within all businesses. In fact, Sun Tzu dedicates four complete chapters of his classic manual ‘The Art of War‘ to investigations. The better your people are at gathering intelligence on threats, competitors, or even potential hires, the more more successful your company is and the more money it saves. Dollars are saved not only by detecting and avoiding risk but also by handling the investigations in-house instead of farming the work out to a costly vendor. There is no dispute that there is a large return on investment for training inside employees to be better investigators. There is also no argument that most data in today’s world is online.
So how do you hone those skills? There are plenty of classes for dummies and beginners, but very few are crafted to give you the ability to handle real-life cases right out-of-the-box. Actually, there is only one.
Last year I launched a class that was created to teach others how to do my job. It is called the IPCybercrime Boot Camp. If you have not yet taken the course, I personally guarantee its value to you and your company. If you have already taken the course, please tell your colleagues. The next class is on Monday July 11th in Washington DC. I encourage you click on this link and sign up.
A story out of folklore of the lower countries, attributed in modern fiction to Hans Brinker, depicts a little boy who walks by a dyke and observes a leak. Anticipating disaster, he pokes his finger in the hole to plug the leak. Eventually, he is assisted by others who keep the entire dyke from collapsing, ultimately averting a terrible outcome. This story is often told to illustrate the effect of foresight and teamwork.
In modern times, the plumber is normally called for a job like this. A leaky homeowner with foresight may call the local rooter-man when he first sees a drip. I agree this event is both anticlimactic and costs a few bucks. Steve could be accused of being a boring Monday evening date and missing the night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother. But he likely avoided a costly disaster which could have resulted in damaged furniture, carpet and, even worse, utter obliteration of his classic 1970s LP collection.
Both of the above tales can easily be used to describe the relationship between the caretaker of a valuable public brand and their private eye. In most entertainment the public’s excitement is equally as important as the content itself. Humans like to be teased, surprised and entertained. In that order. The numerous folks involved in any given entertainment project work hard to keep these surprises under wraps so that the reveal is as dramatic and effective as it can be. Not only is this a service to the fan, this also best insures a good financial turnout for those whose dinner table contents and mortgage payment rely on the gross receipts of the aforementioned project.
Given the above, it is no surprise that the smart folks whose job it is to insure these projects’ success have their Private Eye on speed dial. The days of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe are not behind us. Next time you observe a publicity leak, call your trusty P.I. Most of the time, the leak is the result of a misguided ne’er-do-well in search of peer recognition. Once the veil of anonymity is removed, and the subject is addressed properly, you can often retain value for the brand and look like a superhero.
Sport fishing is a $125 billion dollar industry. No matter how good man gets at it, he is nothing compared to the Alaskan 
If you look at movies, it’s the same thing. Certain stylistic things just catch on. I love the TV show M*A*S*H (Largely because 
Rob Holmes is Founder & CEO of IPCybercrime, a boutique firm providing top-rated investigations for brand owners and their attorneys.
