Pandora Fireside Chat Transcription
3 June 2026
Introduction and Background
Antonio Marsico:
Welcome to the latest in our series of Zacco’s Fireside Chats. Today we are talking about the role of intellectual property in preventing brand dilution and supporting market expansion, and our focus will be on luxury goods. Luxury goods command a premium, because of reputations that are carefully crafted over decades. Taking products into new markets, against new competition requires a great reputation. That is one of the most valuable assets.
I’m here today with Margherita Gastaldi, Senior Manager and Legal Counsel within Global IP and Brand Protection, Legal, Risk and Compliance at Pandora.
Pandora started in 1982 and has become one of the biggest jewellery companies in the world and most recognisable brands in luxury goods. It’s outpacing actually a lot of other luxury goods brands that have existed for centuries. Most of this growth has taking place recently, thanks to the quality and the reputation that Pandora has been able to put in the market. That is considered a real key factor.
Brand recognition has opened for Pandora new territories, and has played an important role in growing the business. But again, reputations built on the quality often face a different form of competition, which resides in counterfeits and unauthorised use of name association or brand association.
Welcome Margherita, thank you for joining us today. Can we start with asking you a little bit about yourself and also your role and the role of IP in Pandora?
Margherita Gastaldi:
Thank you Antonio, Thank you for having me here today. I am Margherita Gastaldi, as you said, I’ve been working in Pandora Now, for a bit more than five years, as IP and Brand Protection Senior Manager. So what I do is I’m leading the IP and brand protection strategy worldwide. I’m a lawyer, as a background Italian lawyer, moved here to deal with this, big challenge of managing this set up in the company from Italy. So, as you mentioned, of course, Pandora is the biggest, one of the biggest jewellery brands in the world at the moment. We still are a bit of a special competitor to the big luxury brands that you mentioned. We have a bit of a special set up. We still like to mention that we are affordable jewellery, and that’s also what makes us extremely popular and extremely lovable by our customers.
As you said, and as you imagine, IP is playing a major big role And crucial role to become and develop the brand that we are today, and this comes with positive but also negative consequences. To protect our brand and protect our reputation, and also protect our customers from major IP threats that are out there, we need to build a strong IP foundation and a very strong global brand protection enforcement strategy.
We do support our innovation and development of our products, of our rights, since the very early beginning, early stage of any creation path. We work closely with our design team to make sure we do everything in a freedom to operate space but we also need to protect our own IP rights from threats and counterfeiters out there.
We launch every year, on the market, hundreds of products, hundreds of new designs, as we call them. And this, of course, comes with a very strong business strategy, that’s what our customers love about us, but of course it also comes with a bit of adjustment from an IP perspective. Comparing to classic luxury jewellery brands, of course, we also have our best sellers, our legacy products, but we have, the majority of our products maybe have, a slightly shorter life cycle. We might have to withdraw some of the products quite fast because we need to adjust to the trends that our customers want from us.
And that is, speaking from an IP perspective, of course has a big consequence, which is that of course, we protect our design, we support the innovation, we do own designs and patents, but for sure the brand and the trademark is where we need to focus the majority of our resources.
Antonio Marsico:
So it’s clear Margherita that you’re proud of your company, the name that it brings with it and the work that you are doing in the IP department, especially, as you said, in trademarks, because you are launching so many products. And I see here some, iconic as well, and you’re saying that you’re launching many new products every year.
So how is your IP strategy preventing the brand dilution and supporting market expansion, especially when we think about you entering a new market or you open new facilities?
Margherita Gastaldi:
When Pandora is both looking at market expansion but in general, when we look at expansion as a business, supporting the growth always has a big leverage into supporting IP protection.
When it comes to Vietnam, for instance, when we were aware about the decision of the business to expanding from the current production, which is entirely based in Thailand, to also get out of Thailand and move into a country like Vietnam, of course, we had to immediately act because Vietnam is a country that required higher and stronger IP protection, and what we had to do was also prioritising our IP resources and efforts into a new market for us.
We are aware that IP protection can be a bit more challenging than other jurisdictions, Asia in general is a big challenge for a brand like us. We are more mature in a market like China, but we were less mature in a market like Vietnam, to be very transparent with you. Then we had to prepare even earlier that the business was ready to be ready with our production. And that also, maybe, I would say a very interesting part of working closely with, with the IP on a global scale. So the case of Latin America, for instance, there was a different scenario where the business was very much interested in getting more opportunities, expand the company business in countries like Mexico, for instance, where we were present, but maybe less strong than what we are today. And then again, having a road expansion plan, a business expansion plan comes with consequence, especially in jurisdictions like Latin America, where we could say, we are a little less mature from an IP point of view.
It’s no secret that those countries come with a bit more challenge, both in terms of enforcement and protection, and also in terms of making sure that we have a good cooperation from local authorities. So what we had to do was essentially clear the path for our business to be launched Safely, in an environment that was as clean as possible, and as supportive as possible. Meaning working with customs authorities, working with enforcement authorities in the market was crucial, and that’s again where having a strong IP IP portfolio foundation was essential to support the business growth.
One thing I would like to mention, for instance, with Mexico that was very interesting, is that we have seen counterfeiters being so fast that they were almost there even before we were there as a business. So becoming good and fast at supporting the growth and preventing IP infringement was crucial, and brought very good result.
Antonio Marsico:
Very interesting Margherita, so you are adopting your IP rights, your IP strategy, depending on the geographies, the sales channel. You mentioned that in Vietnam you had the new facilities and the geography was completely new, so you had to know the place. In Mexico, counterfeiters were there even before you arrived. So, it’s super interesting to understand how you adapt the IP strategy, depending on, again, the decision you have in opening a new market, in landing in a new geography. I would like to understand a little bit more about your IP strategy when supporting growth online.
Margherita Gastaldi:
The digital world is also where we see the majority of IP related problems nowadays. So of course when the business is also looking into expansion in the online and digital world, that’s where our team and our role comes into place. Usually what we do; and we have to do Is, really like I would say, a pre-assessment and clearance of the digital world and environment we are looking at.
As you mentioned, and I mentioned before, Latin America is a great example. Again, we had information from the business they were looking at new channels, and new marketplaces, where we have never been before, officially, as a brand. An example is Mercado Libre, in South America and Latin America, which is the biggest platform and marketplace. What we had to do is, again, being a new market, even though a digital market, we had to make sure to have a strong Portfolio, and strong IP protection, and what we call IP tools and weapons, not just tools to support the growth, but also weapons to fight the infringers. A good example with Mercado was that as a brand we have the opportunity to build our own profile, our own IP account, and of course, the strongest the IP grounds is the enforcement outcome.
So we had a big role in collaboration, with also Zacco, to make sure that Pandora’s trademark, the Pandora logo and, all the rights that we would have liked to use, also for enforcement, were in place and that everything was recorded and registered even before we were launching our own business strategy in that market, and in that digital expansion market, specifically. So that was a good example of where we had to act before the official launch, and the official part on the platform, and also a good example of where being fast is crucial, and the collaboration with Zacco was very important to make sure that everything was in order, everything was in place. That is also because a big player like Mercado or Amazon or Alibaba is supporting us but of course they also come with a lot of expectation towards a big brand like us, to have solid grounds, solid basis, to have them being even more helpful on preventing IP infringement.
Antonio Marsico:
So huge preparation when you land in a new market, you were mentioning clearing the platform before you can launch your products, You were mentioning enforcement of the name of Pandora, throughout the trademark protection in order for your brand to be protected, preventing what we are, Recalling, more and more, your brand possible brand dilution. But I’m very interested in understanding what type of threats, the most prominent ones, you are coming up against, and of course, what type of counteractions you are using?
Margherita Gastaldi:
So, the strategy when we look at digital but also physical market is cleaning first, to make sure that we get launch into the cleanest possible environment. But then of course comes the afterwards, so once the Pandora brands are there, the threats are even more visible, and they become even bigger. So, I would say usually what is very interesting and what is part of our global strategy is we try to split between the online and digital strategy and offline and physical global strategy. The type of threats we see are changing quite fast. That’s because, unfortunately, counterfeiters and imposters of IP rights, as we call them, are also constantly adjusting to new ways of not being caught, not being detected by our tools. For instance, if we look at the numbers and figures are statistics of 2025 alone, ee have removed from the digital world over 700,000 listings or infringements. 700,000 thousand?
Yeah. In fact, even more, and that includes everything from social media to marketplaces and of course also fake cloned website that we see getting more and more every year. It’s not just about, as I was saying counterfeit sales, of course, this takes still the majority, but what we see is really that counterfeiters are also using technology are also getting more and more advanced. AI is playing a big role, not just for us. But also in the wider industry. Exactly.
We use strong tools to detect them, to be faster, also to get to the numbers that I just shared, we necessarily need stronger technology, but unfortunately, they also use it. So what we see is, for instance, listings where our logo is not visible at all, where our logo is only partially visible, where they steal our pictures, our own material, and they use it to attract customers, pretending they are official dealers of Pandora. They open fake pages on Instagram or Facebook trying to attract people with maybe fake sales fake discounts, this happens often, for instance, on peak sales season that we also launch online. So, the variety of IP threats is is really getting more and more absurd I would say and that again, is where having high IP and a strong foundation is crucial. So as you mentioned, we protect our brand, of course we do still protect designs, we do protect our product to some extent, but we definitely need to focus on the trademark.
And something I would like to mention when we move to the physical market, also there, crazy impressive numbers, in 2025 we removed from the market, so actually seized and destroyed, over 200,000 products, also coming in and out of markets. Then we see that each jurisdiction has its different type of threats. So, in Latin America, for example, is where we had interesting cases where starting from a bad trademark application or maybe a misspelled version of a Pandora logo, or the Pandora trademark, we managed to activate investigations and also managed to dismantle counterfeit production happening in the countries like Mexico, for instance, or Brazil, where we had very interesting cases, also supported by by Zacco, and very successful cases where we managed to dismantle counterfeit production and then activate a criminal case against these, big imposters that we encountered. So again, it’s a global strategy, but with necessarily a local focus, that needs to be adjusted depending on the type of threats we encounter. For instance, Asia is different, for a different point of view, as I was saying, it’s no secret for many brands like ours, it’s still the number one counterfeit production of products. But again, unfortunately, cooperation with enforcement authorities doesn’t always go as planned. So again, having maybe, for instance for us for China, China is not the biggest market for Pandora, but we consider it the biggest market from an anti-counterfeiting perspective. So again, adjusting also the IP strategy sometimes is not just focusing on where the market is strong, but also where the anti-counterfeiting strategy needs to be stronger.
Antonio Marsico:
And it’s not a secret that counterfeits are huge in the luxury goods industry overall, and it’s so interesting to see how many activities we have to do, on top of creating, on top of ideating, on top of launching your products, also, in terms of dismantling whatever is being done, the damage of your name, your products. I think you’re doing this for protecting your brand, for the reputation, but also for protecting the customers that you have, the clients that you have, who like to have a genuine product from Pandora and not something which is counterfeited, in Asia or somewhere else in the world.
Yes, absolutely. So counterfeiters are very fast. This is what I learned from you. Now, just out of curiosity, you recently launched the new logo, what’s the level of Infringements that you have already seen there?
Margherita Gastaldi:
Yes. So first of all, yes, they are extremely fast and a global refiling of a new logo or any new revisited version of the current trademarks and logo that we own is a huge project. First of all, we need global protection of everything new, and that was the case, so we had to do a global filing strategy, making sure that all the jurisdictions that were covered from the previous version are now to be covered from the new version of the logo. It’s quite amazing to see how fast they move and how fast they make our new assets, their new assets. So as I was saying before, they do not have, all the issues that we have to launch, a new, logo, a new business plan, they can do it much faster. They have only to copy. Exactly. They just have to copy and take from us what is launched from Pandora. Not even just the trademark and the logo, but when a brand like us enter, or launch for instance, a new trademark, a new collection, often we do it also with new Brand Guidelines, we may use new colours, we may use a new font to promote our products, on the website, in the windows, and that can also give a very different look and feel to the brand as such. That is also what we need to protect, and what we need to make sure that counterfeiters do not steal from us, because that is also what makes our customers and our clients very uncertain of where to find our products. We need to make sure that they buy only from genuine channels. So, when we protect a new logo, often we need to protect a new whole marketing and brand strategy, and I would like to say that, to mention that, because of course everything we have talked about today, and everything we do from the IP and brand protection perspective, comes with the ultimate goal of protecting Pandora customers and clients.
As I said in the beginning, we are very popular for being a brand of collecting, our customers love to collect our products, we do have really loyal clients that have bought our products for years, so we need to be even stronger to protect them and protect, of course, the business from these big threats that are out there.
Antonio Marsico:
Definitely, your customers are your biggest asset.
Margherita Gastaldi:
Oh, of course, absolutely.
Antonio Marsico:
So thank you, Margherita, for this interesting discussion. We have understood and we have learned today that Pandora’s reputation is a big target, a really important target for the infringers. And we have also learned that you do a lot of work in order to launch a product launch or enter a new market, because of whatever you find out there in terms of infringements, which come because Pandora is very well recognised in, in the market.
And thanks to your efforts, thanks to your work, in just 40 years, Pandora has become one of the biggest luxury brands in the world. Again, huge work from the company Itself, and a huge effort also from the IP department in order to set the foundation for every launch to be safe, and for your clients and your customers to be happy to buy genuine and good products.
Thank you Margherita for sharing your insights into Pandora’s global journey.
Margherita Gastaldi:
Thank you Antonio. It was my pleasure. Thank you.