You found counterfeits of your product. The first 48 hours.
What a rights holder should do, and refuse to do, between discovering counterfeit stock and instructing counsel. A field sequence drawn from enforcement practice.
Most counterfeit cases are not lost in court. They are lost in the first 2 days, when an understandably angry brand owner confronts a seller, the stock moves overnight, and the eventual raid finds an empty shop.
Preserve before you act
Buy a sample through an ordinary purchase and keep the receipt, the packaging, and a note of the date, the premises, and the person who served you. Photograph the stock and the shopfront if you can do so safely and without drawing attention. If the goods are online, capture the listing properly; the practice note on digital evidence sets out how.
Do not confront the seller, send a warning through a friend, or post about the discovery. Every signal you send moves the stock one warehouse further from the eventual seizure.
Map the chain, not the shop
A single retail seller is rarely the problem. The questions that matter are where the goods entered the market, who distributes them, and whether the consignments are imported or locally produced. The Anti-Counterfeit Act 2008 gives inspectors powers of entry, seizure, and detention, and complaints supported by a clear evidential file move faster and survive challenge better than complaints built on indignation.
Decide the objective before the action
Enforcement is a means. The objective may be removing the goods, recovering damages, deterring a repeat, or protecting a distributor relationship, and each objective points to a different sequence: an administrative complaint, a criminal referral, a civil claim for infringement under the Trade Marks Act Cap 506, or a negotiated undertaking with destruction of stock. Choosing the sequence after the evidence is secured, rather than in the heat of discovery, is usually the difference between an outcome and an expensive gesture.