🛑 How to Protect Your Brand, Stop Unauthorized Resellers & Prevent Counterfeiting with Megan Harmon @ ThornCrest | E731

Deets & Links

Guest: Megan Harmon, Managing Partner at ThornCrestWebsite: https://www.thorncrest.com

Episode Overview

In this episode of THE ECOMMERCE EDGE Podcast, host Jason Greenwood sits down with Megan Harmon, Managing Partner at ThornCrest.

Megan shares her insights as an enterprise brand protection specialist helping high-growth manufacturers, distributors, and omnichannel brands safeguard their intellectual property, product packaging, and sales channels.

Together, Jason and Megan break down the complex world of modern brand enforcement. They explore how unauthorized Amazon resellers create dynamic pricing wars that erode retail margins, the difference between illegal counterfeits and legal dupes, and how stolen pallets end up on major marketplaces.

Megan also outlines why brand protection should be viewed as a strategic growth lever, how to turn rogue sellers into legitimate distribution partners, and how market intelligence prevents costly Prime Day pricing disasters.

Timestamps

[0:00:00] - Welcome Megan Harmon, Managing Partner at ThornCrest[0:01:49] - What is ThornCrest? Brand protection and IP enforcement for enterprise manufacturers[0:03:40] - Expanding threat vectors: TikTok Shop knockoffs, trade dress, and fake packaging[0:05:00] - The real cost of unauthorized resellers: Dynamic price matching and margin degradation[0:06:50] - Takedown operations: Phishing sites, fake social ads, and consortium networks[0:08:29] - Protecting full-spectrum IP: Patents, trademarks, copyrights, and channel control[0:09:40] - The ideal ThornCrest client: Enterprise brands doing 20 million to 1 billion dollars[0:10:28] - Root causes of counterfeiting: Factory leaks, stolen tooling, and border seizures[0:15:07] - Legal dupes vs counterfeits: How knockoffs bypass brand patents legally[0:20:01] - Conducting a brand protection audit: Phishing scans, Amazon seller checks, and pricing audits[0:23:31] - Whack-a-mole distribution leaks: Why restrictive sales policies backfire[0:26:30] - Quality control, consumer safety, and parallel imports in global trade[0:34:30] - Turning rogue sellers into growth partners: A CPG case study[0:37:29] - Why enterprise brands outsource protection: Market intelligence and rapid response[0:41:23] - The $250,000 Prime Day mistake: Why real-time scraping prevents margin disasters[0:42:45] - Off the clock: International travel and eating lunch alone[0:45:12] - Flipping the script: Megan asks Jason what keeps him young and motivated in tech

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