Cisco Statement on Counterfeit Goods
Statement by Bruce Klein, VP of Federal Sales, and Phil Wright, Director, Brand Protection
As you may have read, the FBI has identified a number of unauthorized companies that have sold products with the Cisco trademark to various government agencies and other organizations. This is of major concern to us, and we wanted to take a moment to share the efforts we are taking to ensure only legitimate Cisco products end up in the hands of our loyal customers.
Unfortunately, counterfeiting is not a new issue in the IT industry or indeed in any successful global enterprise. Because our customers expect and deserve the highest-level of satisfaction when purchasing Cisco products, we actively monitor the counterfeit market and have longstanding processes in place to address this challenge.
As part of our commitment to the integrity and quality of Cisco technology and services, our Brand Protection team leads an aggressive, concerted and company-wide effort to prevent potential damage to our brand and to our customers as a result of counterfeiting. Because counterfeiting is a criminal activity, we work closely with law enforcement agencies worldwide whenever those agencies decide to take action against those who would profit by this illegal conduct.
In this instance, Cisco has collaborated with the FBI and other Federal law enforcement, and we appreciate their hard work in this important area. We have participated in many aspects of the investigation, and have proactively briefed high-level individuals at multiple government agencies.
So what can you do? We can’t stress enough the importance to Cisco customers and channel partners of procuring equipment only from Cisco authorized channels. If you have any questions or concerns I would recommend calling your Cisco representative or authorized reseller immediately.
Again, we appreciate the hard work by the FBI in this case as well as the efforts by all law enforcement agencies in cracking down on the counterfeit market. This is a serious issue that we are diligently fighting every day to ensure our customers receive only genuine Cisco products.
Posted by Cisco PR at 10:00AM PST
Kevinf May 20, 2008
Seems to me a bit disingenuous to make comments about Cisco “Authorized” partners, when several of those partners have been involved in some of the counterfeiting cases currently under investigation or indictment. Yes, customers, help us all be cautious about counterfeit goods, but that includes watching your Cisco Gold partners as well.