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Discover how Nude Project tackles counterfeits with an innovative strategy that protects its brand and connects with its community.
The fashion industry loses billions of euros annually due to piracy, according to recent data from the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office). Emerging brands experiencing hyper-accelerated growth become prime targets. This is the exact scenario faced by Nude Project, one of the fastest-growing streetwear brands in recent years.
To understand how this operational pressure is managed internally, the perspective of Sofía Abellán Bufort, a lawyer at Nude Project, is essential. During the recent IV Fashion Law Congress, Abellán broke down the reality of protecting such a coveted brand identity. Her approach demonstrates that combating fraud is not just about reacting to counterfeiting but orchestrating a comprehensive strategy based on two pillars: rigorous prevention of internal infringements and relentless action against external counterfeits.
If you manage intellectual property on a global scale, Nude Project's operational lessons offer a clear roadmap to optimize your workload and secure your assets.
The first front in brand protection strategy doesn’t occur on global marketplaces but within the company itself. Before demanding respect for your brand, you must ensure your products do not infringe on third-party rights.
Sofía Abellán emphasizes that this process begins at the conceptual phase. At Nude Project, every new design must undergo exhaustive legal clearance. This means the legal team analyzes proposals to detect any risk of collision with already registered trademarks, patents, or copyrights. In practice, this creates a complex dynamic. Abellán describes the relationship between the creative and legal departments as an "eternal struggle." Designers aim to push boundaries, draw inspiration from urban trends, and launch products quickly. Meanwhile, the legal team acts as the necessary filter to assess risk.
For brand protection managers, this tension is familiar. However, the ultimate goal of a lawyer in the fashion industry is non-negotiable: to respect others' intellectual property rights to defend your own with full legitimacy. A failure in this preventive phase not only exposes the company to multimillion-dollar lawsuits but also weakens its position when taking legal action against infringers.
Once the product is safeguarded and hits the market, the real test begins. As a digitally native brand with a massive social media community, Nude Project faces an overwhelming volume of online fraud.
Modern counterfeiters operate with industrial efficiency. They monitor launches, replicate designs, and flood e-commerce platforms with illegitimate listings within days. Abellán highlights that early detection is critical, but manual detection is unsustainable.
To handle this volume without operational collapse, Nude Project relies on technology. The brand uses specialized software to continuously monitor the world's leading marketplaces.
From a brand protection perspective, accumulating alerts doesn’t solve the problem; it magnifies it. The key lies in transforming those findings into concrete actions through takedown processes.
This is where actionable intelligence changes the game. Advanced tools allow for automated threat prioritization. Instead of manually reviewing thousands of listings, the legal team receives a classified analysis identifying which infringements cause real financial harm and which are minor risks. For multi-brand companies, implementing this level of automation drastically reduces vendor fatigue and centralizes global responses. Enforcement becomes consistent, fast, and scalable, closing the window of opportunity for fraudsters to monetize your brand's prestige.
While the digital environment allows for automated responses and quick takedowns, the physical world presents much denser operational obstacles. Counterfeit goods crossing borders or sold in informal markets require a different type of intervention.
During her presentation, Sofía Abellán addressed an uncomfortable reality in the sector: the limitation of resources against physical counterfeits. When a stash of fake clothing is detected, the logical step is to notify authorities. However, not all brands have the financial muscle to pursue criminal actions for each of these offenses. The judicial system is slow and costly. In many cases, the value of the seized inventory simply doesn’t justify the expense of initiating full legal action. This is a common frustration for Compliance and IP leaders.
Despite these barriers, Abellán emphasizes that inaction is not an option. Even if criminal proceedings aren’t pursued in every case, simply notifying police or customs authorities and ensuring a seizure occurs has invaluable strategic value: deterrence.
For counterfeiters, the business relies on low risk and high return. When a brand demonstrates active monitoring and collaboration with authorities to confiscate goods, it alters that equation. The operational risk for the infringer increases, often causing them to shift focus to more vulnerable and less prepared brands.
For your daily operations, this means maintaining a close collaboration network with global customs authorities and registering your intellectual property in their databases. The friction you create in the counterfeiter’s supply chain is often as effective as a courtroom victory.
The story of Nude Project, as told by Sofía Abellán, perfectly illustrates the maturity required to manage success in the digital age. Protecting a brand today demands a perfect balance between internal legal rigor and relentless external enforcement.
As an operational leader, your mission is to build an ecosystem where automated intelligence reduces your workload and allows you to focus on strategic decisions. You need global visibility, precise prioritization, and the ability to act decisively across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously.
Achieving this level of efficiency requires tools that understand the complexity of your day-to-day operations. If you’re looking to consolidate your global enforcement strategy, automate threat detection, and reduce your team’s operational friction, discover how Smart Protection solutions can transform the way you defend your brand’s value in both digital and physical markets.
Speak with a brand protection expert HERE.
