Consumer Power: Fighting Against Damages Caused By Duplicate Brands

What is the general reaction when people buy gold, silver or any expensive jewel? It is a very a common reaction which most of us have come across where we see that they are so excited and at the same time very cautious and also scared as they think a number of times before the final buy of such expensive jewels because its costs heavy and is an investment more than a buy. Further, consumers prefer branded jewels today as they feel they will not be cheated but what when they are cheated in the name of brands? They feel shattered. It’s not only in the case of gold or jewels as this was a big and expensive example but the feeling remain the same even if they are cheated in small items on day to day basis and let me remind it may not be expensive but leaves a heavy impact on the customers and sometime these inexpensive items may risk life in many ways.

Risks of using duplicate products are innumerable. It can at times become life threatening like use of duplicate medicines or packaged food products. It is not at all surprising to know that there is a whole racket of all these pirated products which may ultimately affect the health and happiness of consumers very badly. This shows that consumers are not secured from all sides. These gaps between the real branded products and brand piracy can be filled only by proper efforts made by the consumers as they are the main focus point around whom all these revolve.

For taking proper step the consumers should know the implications and damages caused by duplicate brands which can range from casual damages to grave injuries like:

Ø  Financial loss when buying the fake brand as real,

Ø  Dissatisfaction caused due to unavailability of what was expected,

Ø  Food poisoning caused due to intake of duplicate packaged foods,

Ø  Skin diseases caused due to use of fake cosmetics,

Ø  Disappointment due to lack of quality assured,

Ø  Fatal results by the use of fake medicines and death in severe cases, etc.

These are just a few examples to show the severity of the damages which is caused by the duplicate products but there are more which can happen on usage of duplicate brands. The only precaution which can be taken by the consumers is to stay careful and alert. Apart from this there are steps which can be taken further when they are already exploited.

This starts with simple complaint which should essentially be made by the consumers when they have any such encounters and they should not worry about where to complain as this is not tedious anymore. There are innumerable online portals which help in such cases but it’s also necessary to find a reliable and well received portal and one such platform is Brands and Fakes which can help consumers to start from scratch and deal with all complaints registration and investigations for intellectual property rights which is the most difficult part as it is the main part in order to establish strong evidences against the exploiters. This shows that these steps can not only be easily accessed but also are effective enough to reduce such piracy. So, one should stop cribbing and start taking actions in order to get rid of brand piracy and duplicate brands.

  

A Way Out for Fighting Back Against Trademark Infringement and Piracy

Trademark is a mark which can be graphically represented and differentiates goods of one producer from another producer and is directly related to the reputation of a brand owner or trademark owner. Today, when one goes to any general store where we can find all sorts of products and innumerable brands, there we become careless because of reasons like:

·         The infrastructure of the shop;

·         Or we tend to get distracted by seeing so many different types of items and commodities

These are few reasons which make us careless and give the retailers a chance to use that opportunity. You must be wondering why? This can be explained from a simple example that generally we buy our monthly needful in bulk in the starting of the month, where in every time it’s not possible that we go to some kind of mega mart and shop by ourselves but sometimes it might happen that we shop from small retail shops, here, because of the above mentioned two reasons the retailers can easily cheat on us by putting fake products instead of real ones in our shopping bags. When we reach our home then we see that there is something different or sometimes those fake products even go unnoticed.

This forms the base of the piracy which further results in trademark infringement. Trademark gets infringed when somebody tries to sell his product in the name of some established brand by deceiving the consumers and giving them the impression that their product is the branded product itself by creating similar trademark or names and also selling similar products as of the trademark.

Cheating like this can only happen when there is lack of information on fake products among the consumers and here they pave the way for piracy and trademark infringement. A consumer should not only have knowledge about his trademark but also should be very careful while shopping. A consumer should always keep a check on what is being given by the shopkeeper and should try and individually check the packaged products which helps in differentiating between fake and genuine products. It also creates a fear in the mind of shopkeeper as he will not try to cheat the customers by seeing them so alert and cautious.

These are the precautionary measures but the problem arises when these things have already happened and the consumers are not able to find any remedy to such problems. These problems can be solved by registering complaints about any trademark infringement incident that happens or any complaints regarding fake products on online portals or platforms that provide all solutions relating to these problems faced by the consumers and also the brand owners. Consumers and brand owners can go for trademark infringement investigation which will further corroborate as strong evidence and thus help in fighting against piracy and one of such strong and reliable platform is Brands and Fakes.

 Piracy is deep rooted and will take time to go but one can take these small steps in order to make it a big revolution as it requires equal participation from everyone in order to fight back against brand piracy and trademark infringement.

Fashionably Fake! : report information on fake products

The fashion industry is one of the most vulnerable segments when it comes to the protection of intellectual property. In the fashion world, creativity and innovation are the driving force of this thriving industry. A unique and intriguing aspect of the fashion domain is that it doesn’t really matter who had the original idea, whoever gives the people what they want in terms of fashion, comes out on top. For example the fashion industry isn’t really research based, it’s about the ongoing trends and who is alert enough to catch on to it, innovate on that basic trend and give the people a new product. New is the keyword in the fashion industry, Things gets old and obsolete even before you know it, what is “in” today may be “out” tomorrow. This fast paced and high competition environment does not really leave any scope for the creator to bother about intellectual property protection or to information on fake products. Another point worth mentioning is that when it comes to fashion goods and accessories it is very easy to cover up work that is copied. A bead here, a sequin there, change the color and voila! You have something new! And such occurrences aren’t really questioned as long as the people get what they want. This pattern of function makes it extremely tedious to identify intellectual property violations and counterfeiting in the fashion industry.

The U.S spends millions of dollars every year in order to ensure the development of innovative textile designs. However in India there isn’t really a mechanism that has been developed to ensure originality and innovation in the fashion industry and on the whole there is a dearth of IPR investigators in India. The share of fake products in the global market has been estimated to be around 8%. These fake products in the import/ export chain seriously affect the economies of many countries and cause the loss of billions of dollars.       

It is evident that a serious need for regulation, control and innovation of intellectual property right solutions in the fashion industry. Clearly, the violators are well aware of the existing laws and are taking advantage of the many loopholes in the IPR laws. Fashion designs are the result of hard work, imagination, creativity and financial investment and therefore these designs must be protected from theft so that the original idea remains and credit goes to whom it is due.

An Efficient Fight against Counterfeiting in India

Presently, one issue that is troublesome at a global level is counterfeit. This vicious circle is so dense that it is becoming more and more difficult for any brand owner to work on any kind of anti-counterfeit activity.

Becoming aware needs to be the foremost priority that one needs to consider for fighting this venom prevailing in the society. Counterfeit is not just affecting the brands and brand owners but is directly affecting the consumers by making available cheaper quality replica products. Up till now, most of the patrons have not realised that counterfeiting and piracy are capable of creating a menace to their wellbeing. At many instances, when people are aware of the presence of fakes, they aren’t able to distinguish between the false products due to the impeccable similarity to the original product.

Fight counterfeiting in India is a cause raised due to the alarming growth rate of the fakes present in the market. Though, the truth remains that counterfeiting is not invincible. A brand owner needs to be aware of his IP rights, that include trademarks, designs and patents, that  make available the ways to tackle the production fake copies. Nevertheless, to enforce such rights demands extensive plan.

There are various specialized agencies including BrandsandFakes that work towards the ways to stop counterfeiting. The priority lies in identifying the fakes. We have number of professional anti-counterfeiting forces and tools that help brand owners to spot and act in opposition to counterfeiting. We work along with a group of Volunteers, Brands, Investigators etc.

Fighting counterfeit isn’t a child’s chore; it is a battle that the society needs to fight together, hand in hand. People from different walks of life need to get together and battle against this evil. Intellectual property right plays a momentous function in our economy too; it encourages creativity, art and research of any form and allows the reinforcement of competitive positioning of individuals and companies in the economy. Counterfeited goods, ground a serious threat to the development of the economy. Many organisations make huge profits through forged designs and signs which are protected by intellectual property rights.

Counterfeiting and piracy are concepts which are generally used to indicate a violation of intellectual property rights, this means that certain acts are carried out without the consent of the intellectual property right holder and need to be stopped immediately. As individuals, what we really need to do is, focus and be aware; this will help the society to fight the battle against counterfeit.

The Fight Against the Pretense- Brands and Fakes

Living in an era where the fakes are as many as originals is not a child’s chore and protecting your brand against despicable forged items is another task.  Counterfeit is the biggest rogue that a brand can or has to deal with as it comes along with unimaginable complications and stress.

Many a time’s brands are unaware of the amount of fake copies of their products available in the market. This does not only mean loss of sale but also leads to loss of goodwill due to the contemptible worth of the fakes. Copies and fakes do not only restrict themselves to products but also to designs, logos, packaging, infect, all intellectual property.

Brands and Fakes as a global platform has taken the onus to assist in the fight against the counterfeit. We are an online podium in India offering, fake complaints protection services we also make available information on fake products, distinguish between fake and genuine products. It is a podium where brand owners and consumers are offered to raise their voice against second copy products, fake complaints, trademark fraud investigation, and other IPR compliance services hence acting as a dais that assists brands and fights for their cause. We can help take action against duplicates by help you recognise and act in opposition to the forged products existing in the market.

Brands and Fakes helps you get all Information on Fake Products required for taking action against them.  Our team of experts includes the leading professionals of the industry coming from assorted spheres of brand protection services, IT, content writers, branding, marketing, finance and legal to aid you with the best in class intellectual property right solutions for IPR compliances.

We need to realize that fake or more so inferior goods do not only hamper the brand image but also affect the economy on the whole.  The goal of Brands and Fakes is not restricted to a particular class; we cater to the society on whole by dealing with IPR issues from scratch. Our services include everything right from the information on fake to taking or assisting in taking action against them.  We will cater to your needs if you are a brand that has needs to discover counterfeit of its product available in the market or the consumer who has been cheated with a bogus product.  Let’s be aware and alert to fight this battle against forgery.

Intellectual Property Right Solutions- Ambiguous in our minds not under law

Every single day makes us realize that there are so many duplicates and copies existing in this world. Be it a copy of the DVD of our favorite movie or a name of an eating joint, sometimes nattily and sometimes disorderly designed to match the name and pattern of our favourite restaurant. What do we generally do in such scenarios? Ignore it? Or probably walk away laughing at the situation. But we must understand that there is much more to such copies or fakes than a hearty laughter.

A design, logo, trademark or such work is referred to as intellectual property. These intellectual properties are governed by IP Laws and matters related to them fall under IPR issues. IPR plays an extremely important role in almost every quarter while talking about any kind of intellectual property related to businesses and work of art. These also include investment and new venture decisions. Anyone who thinks about, analyses and produces any form of product, needs to have some kind of access to IPR related laws and rules to avoid conflict of interest with some other variety, not just at that point in time but also for future reference.

There are full-fledged businesses these days working towards the protection of brands and providing exhaustive services in cases of IPR infringement. Brands and Fakes is one such platform providing best in class brand protection services in India.  Brands and fakes essentially brings brand owners, consumers, IPR professionals and industry thought leaders together to fight forgery and all other violations related to IPR. It also provides entrée to consumers, volunteers and IPR professionals for capturing, validating and managing information on fake products & other IPR infringements. At Brands and Fakes, we use the power of internet, mobile and social media to manage information on violations related to IPR and instigate a course of action against fake products & violators. In addition to this, Brands and Fakes also provides you with all Patent related Services, trade mark related Services, Registration of designs and copyrights, Patent/ Trademark and copyrights related Agreements, Corporate Agreements etc.

For a layman or an ordinary consumer, differentiating between products from copies is an uncertain situation. There are instances wherein distinguish between fake and genuine products is not very difficult, which is in the cases of apparent disparity. But some brands have noteworthy similarity and it becomes very difficult to spot the difference in one go. Though, whatever the case maybe, copying another brand in terms of anything, be it design, logo, name etc amounts to IPR infringement. And it is the work of specialized agencies to investigate and collect data on IPR violations in India. Working towards achieving this goal are lawyers, investigative agents, agencies and a plethora of other people. At Brands and Fakes, we provide you all these specialisations under one roof.

Being an extremely competitive global economy, IPR issues in India are rising at an alarming rate. Copying or imitating a brand, piece of art, discovery etc without the consent of the owner is a crime under the IPR guidelines set out by our law. IPR in itself is a full-bodied subject. A license under IPR such as Trademark Registration, Copyright protection etc provides you with legitimate ownership of that product. On having the registration a brand manages to save itself from not just crucial and never ending court proceedings but also manages to create an image of a trustworthy brand. Moreover, it also provides monetary compensation and claim of damages.

As a brand owner, it is one’s duty and right to follow the guidelines of IPR and seek restoration of rights under the same in case of violation.