BRAND PROTECTION SOLUTIONS: KEEPING THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PIRATES, THIEVES AND COUNTERFEITERS AT BAY

There is a thrill in creation. You can witness it in the eyes of kids proudly displaying their science projects once the schools open after summer. With their names boldly labeled on their works, they proclaim to the world that yes, this is my creation. Karl Benz must have felt the same way, when he gave the world the predecessor of the highly popular brand of cars – Mercedes Benz. Today, we recognize Mercedes Benz as one of the “German Big 3” in the automobile industry, the brand name standing for the integrity of the company and the passion of their engineers. The provision of Intellectual Property Rights have been successful at keeping the reputation of “Mercedes Benz” true to their motto- “The Best or Nothing”, which clearly identifies the necessity of protection practices to uphold a brand name. These days, when the market is corrupted with fakes of every other famous brand, choosing to overlook the maintenance of the brand equity becomes a death trap for most of the upcoming and existing companies. The trademark abusers have deployed mechanisms of hitching a free ride on the commercial presence and success of the brands, in turn taking huge portions of revenue from the original brand’s plate. Moreover, counterfeits degrade the level of loyalty of the customers, who are tricked into purchasing the low-quality replicas and thereby, end up blaming the original brand.
Besides focusing on marketing and advertising for the promotion of their products, most companies are making good investments in Brand Protection. A brand protection strategist’s major work is to devise a well planned approach towards protection from counterfeiting, piracy and infringement. Detection of fakes and infringement is the first step of the ladder, followed by a legal action to cease any abuse against the brand name. With the aim of restricting infiltration of fake products into the market, the brand protection service companies concentrate on rigorous market monitoring, relying on their greater access to the resources and the market. The supply chain is investigated to identify the retailers, distributors and manufacturers, in turn establishing the root of infringement and helping to procure the damages borne by the original brand owner. But striking out the defaulters is not enough to maintain the goodwill of the brand and therefore, brand protection companies employ preventive measures to protect the brand from becoming an easy target of the infringers. Several companies providing brand protection services have created a niche for themselves in all industry segments by engaging a proactive process of protection and enforcement of the brand owner’s IP rights. So, if tomorrow someone starts making a product named “Papsi”, the soft drink giant’s chairman needn’t rip his hair out in worry. He will get a good sleep at night, knowing that his brand protection team is there to take care of the problem.

Mansi Kwatra
Dated: July 3, 2014