Brand Protection Services are one of the core expertise of our company and we believe that Brand Protection is as important as Brand Promotion. Our strong nationwide network of investigators and informers along with relevant expertise, experience and skills makes us one of the best brand protection company in India. We believe in quality, efficiency and client satisfaction which have helped us in attaining and retaining very good clients from India, USA, Canada and Europe. For the convenience of our international clients, we have established an office in England as well.
Brand is the name and identity which differentiates the products of your company from that of others. It won't be wrong to say that for major companies the value of Brand is generally more than their physical assets. The Brand is established over a period of time by consistently enhancing and maintaining the quality of products or services. Brand is an asset which attains value with passage of time as opposed to tangible assets value of which diminishes gradually. If you are ready to deliver quality and protect the interests of your customers, you will certainly achieve brand loyalty of your customers.
Brand being an intangible asset, cannot be protected by lock and key method. The methods of protecting a Brand are different than those used for protection of physical assets. The failure to stop counterfeiters and infringers from supplying counterfeit products and infringing products in the market will not only harm your revenue but also the reputation of your brand. A basic principle of brand protection is that timely identification of misuse of your brand significantly increases the chances of success of counter measures taken by you. We say that because a party who has been using a brand or logo for a long time is likely to show more resistance to give up the use of a mark as compared to the one who has recently started using the mark.
We offer brand protection service all over India, online as well as offline. As we know, India is a large market comprising of organized and unorganized sector. The unorganized sector is not regulated which makes them easier for them to use marks, logos or trade dress similar to that of popular brands. Such products are generally supplied in a limited geographical area and thus are not discovered easily. We have come across various incidences where the infringers were not even aware that they were doing something wrong, due to ignorance of law. The other problem which makes brand protection in India a difficult exercise is the attitude of police officials. They are not well versed in intellectual property rights and often show resistance in taking action against the infringers. However, the situation is now changing and officials in big cities have started recognizing the importance of IPR.
We provide comprehensive Brand Protection Services in India, ranging from identification of infringers to enforcement action or amicable settlement. The brief details of each service that we provide is mentioned below:
Market Survey
It is physical search in the relevant markets of a particular city or region to check if your brand is being misused by some other party. The samples of products and photographs of the relevant locations are taken as evidence of such cases. Market Survey plays a very important part in Brand Protection as it helps in discovering infringing and counterfeit products available in the market. As an example, we found a product similar to that of HALDIRAM'S during the market survey. The infringer has copied the brand and appearance of the original product, as can be seem in the photograph below.
IPR Investigations
In the cases of reported or suspected infringement, a detailed investigation is carried out against a party to find out detailed information about the infringer, his business activities, manner and gravity of brand misuse. This helps in formulating an effective strategy.
IPR Enforcement
After obtaining all the required information, an effective strategy for enforcement action is evolved based on the findings and observations of investigation. The action can be in the form of criminal raid, civil raid or amicable settlement through negotiation.
Brand Monitoring
It is keeping regular vigil to find out the actual or potential misuse of your brand. The monitoring should be done online as well as offline to be really effective. The online brand monitoring involves keeping an eye on trademark applications, ecommerce portals, B2B portals etc. and offline monitoring involves regular market survey. The offline monitoring involves regular market survey in different areas.
Mystery Shopping
This is an exercise in which our investigator will pose as customer and approach the target party for purchasing their goods or availing their services. This tool is useful in various circumstances such as sample collection and obtaining evidence in the form of invoice, printed material, photographs and videos. This tool can also be used as follow-up exercise in case of amicable settlements where the target party has agreed to give up the use of mark after a certain period of time.