Animation studio ZAG has opened up an anti-piracy division today to safeguard intellectual property rights for its brands, content and consumer products.

Marie-Claire Trinh Van Hi (pictured left) and Bei Zhou (pictured right) have joined as global brand protection analysts, and will begin their work by focusing on ZAG’s flagship brand, Miraculous—Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir.

With retail sales for Miraculous products generating more than US$1 billion to date, the IP is now a much bigger target for counterfeit content and goods, said EVP of global operations and head of global consumer products Julian Zag in a release. Miraculous hasn’t been a victim of copyright infringement in the past, according to the company, but this could change as it continues to grow.

In their new roles, Trinh Van Hi and Zhou will search online marketplaces worldwide to identify, report and eliminate all counterfeit content and merchandise; spearhead legal investigations to curtail counterfeit supplies; and protect ZAG’s IPs by analyzing websites and social media.

Both report to VP of global e-commerce Christophe Vallade and will work alongside SVP of legal and litigation Ben Johnson. Vallade and Johnson both report to Zag.

Trinh Van Hi most recently served as a brand analyst at Corporation Service Company, and was previously an intellectual property rights protection analyst at UK-based Incopro. Before joining ZAG, Zhou worked as a brand protection consultant for Paris-based Insiders Corp.

The launch of this new division comes at a time when policing knock-off toys has become more difficult and also a greater concern for the industry. A recent survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of The Toy Association found that most US parents would purchase a knock-off/counterfeit toy if their first choice was unavailable (65%) or if it was cheaper than the original item (63%).