Contract manufacturing integrity and IP Protection

Many enforcement actions across the country have revealed that there is direct link of contract manufacturing integrity to availability of counterfeits and other violations to intellectual property of the brand owners. In today’s scenario brand owners are using contract manufacturing, sub contracting of manufacturing processes, leasing, giving agencies etc to drive growth, enter new markets, leveraging external funds and facilities. It is therefore, very important for brand owners not only to assess the initial capabilities, have tight contract but also, keep monitoring the integrity of these channels for interest of the organization and it’s brand.
These violations cut across the third party entities directly or indirectly (though it’s associated) pushing counterfeit goods into the market, thereby working against the interest of the principle company they work for. This is not only detrimental to the brand owner in the short run for loosing on revenue/ profitability, but also many times puts the brand acceptance/ growth or existence at huge risk.
There have been cases, where the registered designs & patents of the brands have been compromised and alternate products by the same or associated organizations have been floated. The problem is more critical for the small brand owners who possess these IP’s and any methodology to stop this to happen later can be very costly. The violator by that times becomes so smart with ill-gotten money that it can really make the life very difficult for the IP owners.
Many times look alike products, violations to trademark and copyrights have also been carried out on behest of the licensee/ sub contractor again leading to lengthy and costly civil suits.
So it is important that brand owners put a strategy in place to continuously monitor the integrity of these entities for a comprehensive compliance to IP rights. Needless to also say that the contracts itself need to be revised time to time with changing market reality.
www.brandsandfakes.com is one such initiative which has built an eco system and a network or professionals & activists/volunteers, which help to monitor the integrity of the contract manufacturing channels & that of the supply chain for protecting IP rights of the brand owners on a continuous basis and keep it updated on the online dashboards of brand owners.