The first priority of every brand across the industry is to make a firm standing in the market. And fear not it is the best objective to hold on to. But often brands forget about the key factor that could help them in achieving it.
No, it's not marketing or campaigning. Although these will gain the popularity the brands need, it often digs a grave most fail to close. Counterfeiting!
And if you ever feel that your brand is safe from counterfeiters and doesn’t require any kind of protection. Think again. The best way to find out is just by searching for your product on Amazon or Flipkart or eBay. Chances are you will find a fake product bearing your brand name or logo. It is something you should worry about. Imagine a normal consumer who is buying these fake products because they had your name on them. When their experience goes south, they will surely blame your brand for it. Which will cause a loss of trust, brand image, reputation, sales and profit.
But it’s not impossible to solve this problem and that is exactly what we will be sharing today.
Your IP, Your Safety
The easiest and smartest way to protect your brand is to leverage your intellectual property rights. You can register your brand name, logo, product design and everything under the law, so that in a scenario when someone tries to pass off a product under your name, you can have legal support.
There are a lot of pirates out there as well as lots of laws protecting innocent brands and consumers.
And the three types of intellectual property rights you can make use of the most are:
Trademarks - which can protect the brand name, the designs, the logo and how it is used. In total, it prevents others from using your brand’s identity to sell fakes. Getting these registered can also give you a huge advantage in the overseas market as well.
Patent - which can protect an invention or a new method through which an operation can be conducted. This lends a huge competitive edge and a headstart in the market.
Copyright - a boon to protect the content you generate, for example, your social media and website content can be copied by anyone to mimic your brand and trap innocent customers, but the copyright stops them from doing that. Unlike other IPRs, copyright doesn’t need to be registered as the creator enjoys the rights the moment its created.
But having registered these IP laws need not guarantee 100% safety. These laws will help you win a legal suit against the counterfeiters for infringing your IP rights but in no way will it prevent counterfeiting.
Then What Solves Counterfeiting?
A preventive solution. If you are wondering about how to prevent getting your intellectual property violated, There are some ideas we can share:
Number one is to Equip your customers with knowledge:
Yes, they are your primary defence against the fake market. Keeping them aware of the fake products; the low quality they offer, and the possible consequences it can bring upon their lives. Moreover, you can press upon the advantages your buyers will get by purchasing the original product. Use commercials, social media marketing, press releases and celebrity endorsements to effectively communicate the idea to the mass audience. A well-aware public can double the security compared to any other solution.
Number two is regularly monitoring:
Keep your product and the IP regularly under supervision. Having an eye on the product throughout the supply chain and the market can help you identify where it is getting counterfeited. Once you identify such malpractices double the security.
But what if you could combine both of these solutions into one and simplify your efforts and save a ton of time and cost? And that is the third solution:
Number Three is to utilize an appropriate anti-counterfeit tool:
Find an anti-counterfeit solution that suits your business and practice. Anti-counterfeit tools are specially designed to identify IP infringements and prevent the distribution of fake goods.
To give you a clear picture, Acviss’s Truviss has the ability to find IP infringement across online and offline channels. Be it fake websites, social media ads, fake applications on the play store and app store or any other unauthorized product listings, Truviss’s AI and Machine learning systems can identify the counterfeits in real time and eliminate them without worry.
Recently BoAt, one of India's major D2C brands was under grave threat from the counterfeiters. Tens and thousands of fake websites bearing the brand's name and logo were selling products that didn’t even exist, and people who were unaware of the scam fell victim to it and lost a lot of money to them. Instances like this leave the customers suspicious of the genuinity and the trustworthiness of the real brand. And that’s why an anti-counterfeit solution can find the counterfeit before the customer finds it really necessary.
For example, Truviss uses 500+ points, such as the product design, logo, letters, numbers, brand name, product model and many other details to map your product image and scan them across platforms to find any malpractices and tampering. A solution like this can help you protect your brand from any kind of counterfeiting before it happens.
Prevention is better than cure
Your product may be a ground-breaking innovation or the new trendsetter, but its value is little to nothing if the customers are not willing to pay for it. And your Intellectual property rights will be of little use if you don’t take proactive measures to enforce them and get the competitive and long-term advantage your brand deserves. It is always better to take care of the threat before it becomes too late for you to intervene. Your customer and your brand deserve the best and that alone should be your priority.
