A startling proportion of products sold in the UK are sourced from China. In today’s competitive market UK retailers are seeking to cut costs and sourcing directly from China is a common solution. In doing so, retailers need to take steps to avoid infringing their original supplier’s intellectual property rights ("IP rights").

Increasingly, the global economy is dependent upon the creation and distribution of intellectual property (IP) to drive economic growth. However markets are plagued by fakes be it stamps, watches, cigarettes, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, FMCG products, auto components, software, music, films etc resulting in significant loss to companies, corresponding evasion of tax duties and violation of the rights of the consumer.