Recent developments in the DIY and construction industry have highlighted the importance of protecting trademarks and preventing others to piggyback o
Recent developments in the DIY and construction industry have highlighted the importance of protecting trademarks and preventing others to piggyback on years of hard work and building of trust in products.
Not only does trademark infringement harm the owner of the trademark but it also affects the customers who are being misled by the party infringing on the trademark. Cindy Engels of A.Shak says the company vigorously protects its trademarks as it believes that much effort needs to go into maintaining a brand name which the industry trusts. “Imitations of our products are not guaranteed to match the quality of our products that we have formulated and by not protecting our trademark we risk having our brand tied to products we have no say in the quality of.”
“How do you go about continuing to protect your trademark? The most effective way to protect your trademark is through continuous and consistent enforcement. Preventing your trademark from being abused by those who attempt to steal the credibility you built. As a customer, think to yourself if you would trust a company who didn’t even have the integrity to create their own name for their product and would rather steal the name from a company that put in decades of work to build the trust of an industry. You would need to question just how reliable the product inside is if they could not even put in the effort to make their own name for their product.
“That is why we encourage people to do their research on the products they are purchasing to avoid knockoffs and inferior products. The importance of going for the reputable brand cannot be overstated. Do not just assume that the size of the company manufacturing the product is a good indicator for quality as even some of the largest players in the industry may attempt to force a smaller company who has developed their product over decades off of the trade mark they own and claim it for their own product that may be inferior,” she says.
Cindy adds that by taking this type of approach to checking the authenticity truly makes a difference as it rewards brands that maintain quality and develop their own unique identity. If a company is no longer able to fool customers by copying the name of their competitor then they will need to put in the effort and actually build trust for their product themselves through results.
“Next time you go to a store we encourage you to take a moment and think about which is the name brand and which is the brand that stole the name. Just because you see a large company using a name that does not mean they are the owners of that name and they may be attempting to force the original owners off their trademark out of greed for what the original owners have built and a lack of respect for the customers looking for the reputable product.”
