One might know everything about its brand and product, from every fine detail, its USP, to offering unique solutions to the customers. However, counterfeiters, who are criminals, are getting better and better at copying products and brands. Counterfeit products threaten all kinds of markets, industries, from cosmetics, to fashion and pharma.

The catastrophic effect of counterfeits reflects on the consumer opinion and the financial status of the brand. With modern social media and product review websites, counterfeiting products are bad for the reputation of premium brands. In the fashion industry, counterfeits are only the bad effect of the brand on the customer. In contrast, in the cosmetic or pharma industry, the result could be hazardous, impacting the health and safety of the consumers and patients.

Despite the concerted effort to continuously check products and keep an eye on the supply chains, businesses remain prone to counterfeits and require brand protection services to protect the brand. As suggested by some industry reports, by 2022, the global counterfeiting industry is predicted to be worth $4.2 trillion.

Now imagine if a customer is searching for a product online but lands at a fake website. The customer is highly convinced by the website’s presentation and how the fake seller sells the counterfeits with utmost confidence. When a customer buys that product from those websites, it might never reach them or reach in a most degraded quality that may lead to an unpleasant experience and eventually results in the brand loses a potential customer.

Whether a brand is from luxury goods, electronics, food, or any other industry, one would not want it to be near this reputation-damaging fakery. This tawdry act will hamper the strength of a brand.

Being a brand, one has to understand the essential knowledge to keep its intellectual property protected. Counterfeiters persistently target the companies from which they can profit and use any and every tactic to stay in business with a brand name.

However, there are strategies to fight against infringers in both the online and offline world.

IP Registration: Register the intellectual property in jurisdictions, both, where one markets the products or intends to market.

NDAs with partners: Protect confidential information and prevent its misuse by signing confidentiality and NDA with partners.

Fight malicious websites: Similar websites are set up for malicious or criminal purposes. An effective online monitoring and enforcement program can help protect domain names and takedown the infringing domains.

Strong social media presence: Social media has become an essential platform for counterfeiters, and brands need to maintain their authenticity there. With a strong presence, the brand needs to establish itself as authentic. Through on-site reporting tools and blue tick feature, a brand can remain authentic for the customers to reach out to them.

Educate the customers: Customer education is necessary as it helps customers recognise the difference between fake and authentic products. It builds a trust factor between the customer and the brand, while the customer will learn these tactics for the future too. The purpose of educating people on the overall harms of counterfeiting, make them aware of knockoff products.

It is necessary to raise awareness and implement innovative anti-counterfeiting investigations for the brands. The brand protection services will ensure the safety of customers and keep them at bay from counterfeit products. Know more