Having a great idea and product is not enough, there are various issues to look after. Many people have been here, in the planning and ideation stage before you, learning from their mistakes can be a wonderful safeguard for you and will save you extreme head-aches.

Here are 7 mistakes that you should avoid and make your life easier.

• Starting too big: We all start with millions of ideas and have faith that we can have it all but focusing on a niche and aiming at the right target audience is more important than jumping into the ocean. Fun Fact: Ralph Lauren started with selling only men’s ties.

• Poor Budgeting: Before starting out, know the costing of each and every material, task, labor etc. and plan accordingly. We often miss out on calculating the cost of every task, marketing, website, paid advertisements, distribution channels, etc.

• Choosing Poor Domain: Your domain name with stay with you forever, it is a part of your brand strategy and marketing. The domain name needs to be catchy and memorable; it will also bring you a good SEO leading to better results.

• Doing it alone: Covering everything alone is humanly not possible. If you want to grow and do it right, have a good team! It is essential to create a team that understands you and your vision for the company.

• Mixing Personal and Business Finance: Keeping the business finance and personal finance separate is necessary. Mingling the two can lead to major issues in taxation and will also leave you with an unclear picture of the brand’s revenue.

• Setting the Right Prices: Cheaper products may attract the crowd at first but won’t help you in the long run. There will always be someone selling the similar product at a cheaper rate. Make sure to create a brand and vision that is relatable and connects to the customers.

• Not looking into the Legal Compliances: Before launching the brand, it is necessary to hire a good lawyer and look into the legal compliances related to your field of product. Don’t forget to get your intellectual properties trademarked and apply for the copyrights too.

Starting your own line can be stressful and requires in-depth planning. Make sure to research well and speak to as many stakeholders as possible. Avoiding these mistakes and working with us can help you reach your goals faster and better.

Happy Launching!

Setting goals for your firm and creating a strategy to achieve them are both aspects of brand planning. This can entail defining measures for monitoring progress and determining key performance indicators (KPIs).

A brand plan outlines the goals and strategies for developing and maintaining a successful brand. It can be used to guide the work of a marketing team or individual, and should be tailored to the specific needs of the brand. Here are all the check points you need before establishing your own brand. 

1. Market Niche: To begin with, select your niche in the market that can be defined by its unique needs and preferences. Figure out if your product can make a difference in that niche which is not currently filled.

2. Market Analysis: Once you have selected your niche, start with analyzing the market and competitors. Know who you are competing against and where you have to place yourself in the market.

3. Business Plan: Start working on a basic business plan. Identify the goals for your brand.

4. Target Audience: Once you have decided your market and done your research on competitors, set your target audience. Look at who you want to cater to.

5. Branding: Select the color pallet, logo, brand name, tag line and other branding related activities

6. Product: Design the product and start thinking about manufacturers and distributors. The first collection you introduce to the market will tell a lot about your brand, so make sure it’s something you’d be delighted to use as a calling card in the future.

7. Marketing Process: Alongside, start working on the marketing plan as well. How will you create a buzz, what channels will you use for marketing, etc.

8. Legal Compliances: As soon as you have decided on the brand name and other factors, begin your legal process. Register your company, register your intellectual property and fill out the compliances. 

Once you are done with all the planning, it’s time to start taking action. Only thing harder than planning for a brand is sustaining it. If you need any support, Legal Desire Consulting can help you with the creative process with our checklists, roadmaps and consultancy services. 

The above stated is an example which could happen to most of us too. Today most of us purchase our products online for various reasons like attractive sales, pricing, wide range of collections, and most importantly to save time as we all are busy with our lives. Before the product is purchased most customers tend to read the reviews and see how the other consumers have rated a product. We tend to believe that these reviews are legit but this is the mistake most of us make as in many cases they can be fake. In such cases it can have an impact on the customers as they might start to mistrust or undermine the genuine information that is made by the purchasers. 

Websites must only accept reviews from consumers who have actually bought and used a product and not everyone must have access to post reviews. For example, Amazon has an option that enables the reviewers to add an “Amazon Verified Purchase” tag to their reviews and this tag will help the other customers find out if the reviewer actually purchased the item through Amazon. However there are high chances that even these reviews are rigged as the sellers may ask you to purchase the product for free in return for a fake review or rating and this will remain undetected by amazon. Just to increase their business these sellers indulge in such activities and this is one of the most sinister sides of business we all are unaware of.  There are also part time jobs to review a product on some websites for which people are paid. Amazon has sued and penalized several sellers and reviewers in the past to reduce the number of fraudulent reviews that exist in their platform. However it is not easy to get hold of all the violators. 

HOW TO DETECT A FAKE REVIEW 

Detecting a fake review is not very easy as they mimic and can look very similar to an original review. 

Linguistic characteristics are a big giveaway. Reviews that are deceptive are longer and will have content that is not related to the product and will contain statements like “my mom and I used to buy them from the original store” instead of merely stating the truth. Even a single worded review with exclamation is considered to be fake. Paying attention to the complexity of the words used is very important as false reviews will contain shorter or easier words. Reviews that are legit are always to the point and are more specific about the spatial configuration.

Look at the date of the review because sometimes the review is written even before the products have been released and these reviews are unauthentic reviews. It is very unlikely for any customer to have extreme emotions for a product. Therefore any review with an extreme negative or positive view will be a false review. Fakespot.com and Review Meta are websites that will help you to check the authenticity of a review just by pasting the URL.  All these factors can help us assess if a given review is fake or not. If the consumers are more cautious while reading reviews and detect the fake ones it will help to increase the standard of products in the market.

LEGALITY 

Fraudulent methods of marketing a product are unlawful in many countries. In India the right to be informed under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 is violated because of the existence of fake reviews which leads to misleading the customers. According to the Act every customer has the right to be informed about the quality, quantity, potency, purity, price, standard and services of a product. Section 17 of the Consumer Protection Act states that in case of any misleading advertisement or unfair trade practices the consumer can inform the District Collector or the Central Authority either by electronic mode or in writing. 

The European Union Directive has barred oneself from misrepresenting as a customer, promotion of a product in the editorial content without making it clear that the trader has paid for the advertisement, any sort of deception or idea that can cause confusion in the minds of people, unfair trade practices and comparative advertising. Faking to be a customer and promoting a product is also prohibited in the UK under the Unfair Trading Regulation 2008 and incase of any breach the penalty will be an imprisonment for 2 years or/and  unlimited fine. UK has certain rules that are developed. Article 3.1 states that advertisements cannot be misleading. Article 3.5 states that the communication cannot be misleading. Article 3.45 states that there must be documentary evidence of a testimony while marketing to prove that it is authentic. Section 5(a) under the Federal Commission Act prohibits unfair trade practices or any deceptive methods that can affect commerce. Section 18 of Australian Consumer protection Act does not allow any conduct that can be deceiving.

HOW TO DEAL WITH FAKE REVIEWS 

1. The information asymmetries must be reduced or even eliminated. This would also allow the consumers to trust the marketplace with increased confidence, which will expand the readiness of the customers to be participants in the marketplace. 
2. Recognizing the capable beneficiaries to regulate the laws that affect the impartial and efficacious functioning of the market is important as it can improve the marketplace condition.
3.  Many businesses which are completely legitimate, are concerned about the damage that fake and misleading reviews can cause to them. Therefore recognizing the matters of policies and statutory concerns to the allies is another way to deal with fake reviews.
4. If any misconduct or misbehavior is identified, firms can examine and take defamation actions, and also disclose their findings to the media organizations to shame the offenders.
5.  Education programs can be undertaken to educate the marketers and firms about the legality of enactment that allow false reviews.
6. Small rewards, or some acknowledgements can be given to consumers or businesses who spot offenders and report them to regulators.
7. Support can be provided to private systems that recognize and report on the sites that allow or bear fake reviews.

As responsible citizens its best to not indulge in writing false reviews online, take up jobs to review products, or accept any sort of reward from the sellers in return for a review. We must report sites that engage and allow this as consumers can start losing confidence in the marketplace. Online sales is expanding quickly therefore it must be a safe place for the consumers to purchase. 

REFFERENCE

• ANDERSON, (June 2014), Reviews Without a Purchase: Low Ratings, Loyal Customers, and Deception, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26661833

• Mayzlin, (AUGUST 2014), Promotional Reviews: An Empirical Investigation of Online Review Manipulation, https://www.jstor.org/stable/42920894

• Malbon, J. (2013). Taking fake online consumer reviews seriously. Journal of Consumer Policy, 36(2), 139-158.

Author: Hridya Nambiar

]]> https://fashionlawjournal.com/how-to-spot-fake-reviews/feed/ 0 https://fashionlawjournal.com/fake-famous-influencers-and-how-to-identify-them/ https://fashionlawjournal.com/fake-famous-influencers-and-how-to-identify-them/#respond Tue, 07 Sep 2021 15:55:33 +0000 https://fashionlawjournal.com/?p=2262 Picture this: You are scrolling through Instagram and stumble upon a rather humdrum post of an XYZ brand you’ve never heard of. The determined scroller in you doesn’t wait up to read what the post is about, and quite organically moves on to the next post ready for you by the algorithm. Now picture a slightly different scenario. The difference is that this time it’s your favorite internet personality promoting this very brand. Call it FOMO or your inquisitiveness, you’d want to know what the hype is about. Chances are, you might visit the brand’s website. In the best case scenario, the brand’s products are purchased by you in the next five minutes. A study by Olapic found that 31% of the respondents have purchased a product or a service in such cases. This internet personality, whom you trust enough to make or break your purchasing decisions, is an Influencer.

How much Fame to be Famous?

From Tiffany and Co. to your local businesses, every brand with a social media presence is scrambling to work with Influencers to reinforce brand trust and increase targeted reach, resulting in a multi-billion dollar influencer marketing industry.

There are several parameters that help determine the ‘fame fortune’ of an Influencer but what tops the list is the number of followers they have. More often than not, this factor is proportionate to their fame. Influencers with a colossal fan following are not only sought out by brands but also make a fortune out of such arrangements. Access to a large audience who rely on your credibility opens gates for brand collaborations and opportunities to rake in a lot of money. This is probably why fake Influencers are sweeping across social media giants and manufacturing Influencer Frauds.

According to a study by a cyber security company Cheq and the University of Baltimore, it was predicted that Influencer frauds cost advertisers 1.3 billion in 2019, projected to grow to 1.5 billion in 2020. With the pandemic and rapid increase in Influencer marketing from home, one can only imagine the current risks that brands might be facing.

When brands collaborate with influencers, the latter become the face of the brand in the eyes of the average consumer. Engaging with a fake Influencer is risking the brand image, consumer trust, campaign effectiveness – thus incontrovertibly leading to financial losses. And that’s why it is imperative that a brand perform an authenticity check before sealing the deal with any influencer.

How Fake to be Famous?

Fake Influencers commoditize fame, buy fake followers and engagement while posing as conventional Influencers. A simple Google search “how to buy fake followers on Instagram” will provide you with dozens of services that enable you to buy these human forgeries. The costs depend on how many and how promptly you want them.

Image source: Google Images

A huge chunk of these fake accounts are automated accounts known as bots. Typically, these are the spam accounts that post a plethora of generic comments on Influncers’ posts to increase traffic and engagement.

Another way they increase engagement is by becoming a part of comment pods. It’s a barter exchange of comments, a sort of a group where each member comments on the other’s posts, and the favor is then returned.

An experiment by Mediakix breaks down this process and demonstrates how easy it is to buy fame while posing as influencers and even go as far as securing brand deals.

How to Identify the Fake Famous?

Fake accounts and bots are welcomed with warmth by fake Influencers, but they also plague the accounts of those who didn’t ask for it.

In 2014 came the Instagram Rapture. In a quest to put an end to the fakery that was looming over the web, Instagram deleted millions of accounts as a result of which celebrities like Taylor Swift lost millions of followers in just a few days. Apparently, Instagram didn’t delete enough millions. Turns out that these bots are still very much present, and have become smarter. Companies that produce bots earn profits out of these fake accounts, and keep developing them to evade the algorithm and stick around.

And so we face the real question –

“How to identify what’s fake? How can we spot fake influencers?”

Since it is all about the number game, a study of these metrics will give away relatively credible information about fake influencers and their path to fame.

• Engagement to Follower ratio

An Instagram influencer who has bought fake followers is likely to have barely any likes on their posts. It is possible to buy 50k followers over a span of 10 days and still get as little as 50 likes on posts. This means that their engagement rates are  significantly lower than what they should have been, if their followers were all genuine. If you come across such a pattern on any Influencer’s account, it is best to not partner with them.

• Look for bot comments

These auto-generated comments are now ubiquitous on Instagram ranging from being absolutely generic to intrusively abusive. Whether your post is about your recent trip to Mexico or about your neighbor’s cat who’s dying, bot replies like “nice pic”, “get free cash prize on buying 20 bitcoins” flood the comments section of these accounts. High-profile grammers like Kylie Jenner, Justin Beiber also fall prey to these bots. But what makes your influencer different is when you notice a continuous series of such comments on each of their posts. A quick glance through 20 of their recent posts should do the job. If the primary type of comments on their posts are like the ones mentioned above, it is possible that they have signed up for this bot parade.

Image Source: Einstein Marketer

• Look through their ‘followers’ list

This might sound a bit cumbersome, but once you know what you’re trying to uncover, the job gets easier. Fake influencers buy fake followers to appear more popular than they actually are. That’s why their followers are a direct source that help discover whether the Influencer is genuine or administering fakery. The most obvious signs of a fake follower account are having a blank display picture, following thousands of accounts but not having a single follower, 0 posts, a cryptic username. When most of the followers of your influencer embody these features, it is quite possible that they have been bought.

• Tagged photos

Genuine Influencers with a thriving community are tagged in posts by their followers, and even fan pages. Fake influencers generally do not exist in the same capacity in the real world. If your influencer isn’t tagged in other people’s/ followers’ posts, chances are that they have faked their entire web existence and bought their fame.

• The authenticity of their content

In addition to inauthentic practices like buying fake followers, if their content itself seems to be stolen and full of stock photos, then your influencer isn’t really being honest while influencing. Checking the veracity of what they post is another way to identify their genuineness.

• Instagram Analytics offered by platforms

Platforms like Hypeauditor analyze the quality of influencers’ audiences, engagement rate, and comment authenticity. Brands take help from such platforms to do detailed statistical research on influencers to put a value estimate on them and negotiate better. Type any account name in their search bar, and at a certain cost, one can access the account’s insights.

Image source: Hype Auditor

Every social media aficionado is looking for growth and employs different methods to stay at the top of their game. Many get consumed in vanity metrics and resort to the ‘fake it till you make it’ mentality. Because fame, engagement, and everything in between can be traded online, brands are attempting to come up with the right metrics to base an Influencer’s value on. With every attempt of social media giants to eradicate these dishonest practices, there comes a more evolved and evasive bot system that doesn’t get caught and spreads exponentially. Fake influencers and corresponding frauds endanger every stakeholder of the online marketing platform. There is a sincere need for brands, consumers, and followers to be aware of these practices to not only steer away from them but to also report these accounts and take necessary actions to protect themselves.

“Imitation Is The Highest Form Of Flattery” – COCO CHANEL

Does this imply that the fashion business is less concerned with intellectual property rights than other industries? Your brand is one of your most significant assets if you offer clothing, accessories, or patterns. A brand is defined under intellectual property (IP) regulations as everything that a customer recognises about your company. This includes your company’s name, logo, and product design. When starting a clothing line, think about how you can effectively secure your designs. The different official and unofficial security options available to businesses in the fashion sector are discussed in this article.

The official Security Options:

You have three alternatives for officially protecting your Intellectual Property (IP): registering a trademark, registering your designs, and applying for a patent. Trademarks can be used to protect product names, logos, and jingles. You’ll be able to do the following after registering: file a lawsuit against infringers; as a deterrent and caution, place the ® sign next to your brand; and make money by selling and licencing your brand. Words, colours, sounds, and a combination of the above can all be used in your trademark. Before submitting an application to register your trademark, be sure it hasn’t already been registered in the database.

Another option as mentioned above is to protect your brand with a registered mark which will give you the following protection: protection of appearance and physical shape. Thus, the shape and decoration of the product are both protected by this service. Another, way to protect your brand is by the way of a patent. A patent is a type of intellectual property registration that recognises your invention’s originality. Patents are normally granted for a period of twenty years. Due to the nature of the verification method used to establish that your concept, work, or innovation is absolutely unique, they are expensive to obtain and take a long time to process. Even though they are extensively employed in the fashion business, they are underutilised.

THE UNOFFICIAL SECURITY OPTIONS:

If you are afraid that your ideas, creativity and innovations used to create a design will be stolen or copied before it hit the market or even before it is officially protected i.e., before intellectual property registration then the following unofficial security options should be followed:

1. Send your designs to yourself through email or upload them to your personal cloud storage (Gdrive/icloud/onedrive)

Even if you have hundreds of rough drawings and aren’t sure which one will be finalised, save them all to your personal cloud space. Simply give each design a name (and possibly a serial code) and upload. In the event of infringement, you can use this digital evidence to later establish that you own it.

This technique of mailing yourself a copy of your own work is often known as “poor man’s copyright”. The copyright law makes no provision for this form of protection, and therefore is not a replacement for registration. It can only help you to secure your designs before officially protecting them.

1. Postal Self-mail your designs

Send your designs to a self-addressed envelope (at home or at work). Save the courier slip with the date/time information. Make a video of you opening the packet containing those designs/pictures/graphics. Both the courier receipt and the video will protect you in the event of future IP infringement.

This tactic is used in countries like the United Kingdom and France, where it is known as the Soleau envelope. However, one of the most serious issues with this technique is that mail is easy to tamper with, making it untrustworthy as proof. You can mail an envelope with nothing in it so that it has a specific date on it, then fill it with something later. You can use steam to open an envelope and replace the contents with something else. It’s just tough to tell if a piece of mail is in good condition. Therefore, these unofficial options only protect your design to a certain extent, thereby making official security options the most important security option.

1. Install surveillance cameras in your office or conference room

It’s possible that you’re inviting manufacturers to make the final product based on your design. Yes, not every meeting will result in a deal being closed. They can, however, take an image of your design for obvious reasons, such as checking with workers for final confirmation. The CCTV footage will record such gatherings and their behaviours (photography, scribbling, and so on).

1. Using the current date newspaper, take a picture of your designs

Select the design with the current date newspaper from the drop-down menu. Ensure that the date is apparent in the photo. This will serve as a record for future reference.

1. Have an IP clause in your job contract

If you have a team/staff to create your brand, make sure the employment agreement includes an IPR clause that gives you exclusive rights to the designs and restricts the employee’s ability to use/share them.

It’s critical to understand who possesses which rights to a design and how it might be used. If you’re not certain whether a design concept is fair use or could be considered infringement, it’s best to play it safe and avoid employing it. You can have a hard drive or notebook full of explicit, even savage, satire ridiculing popular businesses and personalities, but when it comes to publishing and marketing designs, you need to know the ins and outs of what you can and can’t do legally. As a small business owner, you should have a working relationship with a lawyer who can help you with situations like this. This type of advice is one of the most beneficial investments you can make in your company.

Conclusion

Design inspiration can originate from everywhere, and different people can come up with comparable clothing notions at the same time. That is one of the reasons why legal protections in the fashion business are so difficult to come by. However, the finest policies are always honesty and integrity, and fashion design copycats not only injure the designer from whom they are imitating, but they also deprive themselves of their own uniqueness.

Independent designers breathe new life into the fashion industry and the economy as a whole. It’s not just the correct thing to do to respect the intellectual property of the fashion design world. Therefore, these official and unofficial security options to protect the designs play an important medium to protect designers from copycats. Intellectual Property propels the entire industry forward with innovative ideas that captivate, enthral, and inspire even more outstanding work.

Authors:

Muskan Mahajan, Legal Writer at Fashion Law Journal & Anuj Kumar, Editor-in-Chief, Fashion Law Journal

When we buy cosmetics we look into the ingredients which are contained in the product, i.e., if it is free from paraben, fragrance, and other unwanted chemicals that are harmful to the skin. Once a consumer starts using a certain product that suits their skin, they tend to stick on to the using it till they find a better product. But, they overlook the fact that sometimes when they buy the same product online, they may get a counterfeit product, and that’s how we lose a consumer of the original product. This will create a sense of distrust towards the product and the company.  

There are two kinds of consumers concerning buying counterfeit products. One, consumers who intentionally buy counterfeit products as they are cheaper and sometimes get lucky with the quality of the product or don’t care about the quality of the product. Second, consumers who in the pretext of buying authentic products get scammed with counterfeit products.

Then there is another different section of the consumers who create content on various social media platforms with regard to the comparison of real and fake products and sometimes advertise the fake ones as they can be better than the original product.

With the counterfeit industry booming, consumers should be aware of distinguishing between real and fake products. With the improving technology, it is becoming harder to distinguish real from fake. Here are some tips to keep in mind while buying:

Packaging

One of the most important things to look at is the packaging. In the picture below, notice the obvious differences. The flap lid of the bottle is on the other side. The color is different. The imprint of the product name below the sticker is the fake one. One thing we should all be aware of is, top brands wouldn’t sell a defective packaged product to the market.

Not only the product packaging but also the package in which the product is delivered is also a cause for concern. Luxury brands take care while packaging and delivering the product. They do not risk using flimsy packaging.

Ingredients

In one of the episodes of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, remember how Kylie busted some local shops selling her lipsticks which were fake and were of low quality? This not only causes skin problems because of the low-quality ingredients used but also a lot of loss to the company and it creates a sense of distrust in the minds of consumers.

Counterfeiting is not limited to cosmetics and garments but also unfortunately health supplements. In order to suffice the shortage of medicines, some companies launch medicines with a similar name, but different ingredients.  

 We tend to overlook the ingredients when we get used to a product. To find out if a product is fake or not, take a look at its ingredients. The original ingredients list can be found on their website and comparison is the most effective way to prevent buying counterfeit.

Logo 

Sometimes the placing of brand tags is unique for certain brands. For example, on men’s shirt pockets the brand logo will be on a specific side and of a specific size. Also, another minute detail that no one will ever notice is the difference in the Care Label of the real garment from the fake one.

Brand name (grammar/spelling mistake)

The font and spacing of the fake product is the real problem solver. 80-90% of the time, the fake products give away clues with regard to the font, spacing and color of the packaging and the product.

In 2012, when there was a shortage in Adderall Pills (medicine for people with ADHD and Hyperactivity). Suddenly, there was a huge influx of Adderall in the market but there were too many shortcomings that the counterfeiting was caught within a short span of time. The words “Singel Entity” were the cause of trouble. A simple spelling mistake or spacing is enough to distinguish between real and fake products.

 Trademark

Another easy way to distinguish between real and fake products is the Trademark. The tip-offs can be the color, font, design or the symbol“TM” can be missing. A lot of branded bags and clothes though they look similar, we can distinguish between real and fake as the knock-offs usually do not carry the trademark symbol for the fear of getting caught. Sometimes the fake products keep the trademark and alter the font of the product. 

The company prints several codes and patent information, which sometimes the fake product misses out on.

Manufacturer/ Seller Address

Sellers’ Addresses can be different in different countries. Certain agencies take up contracts from top brands to act as a middleman or sell their products in the country. It is important to know that luxury brands are made in their place of origin (Chanel- Italy). Sometimes in order to not get caught the fake products may not have the manufacturer/seller’s details imprinted on the product. This implies that there is no way for grievance redressal. 

Holograms/Certification Marks (sometimes):

BIS Hallmark is the first thing we look for to identify the purity of gold. Likewise, various certification marks enable us to identify the authenticity of the product. Some books have their unique stamp to ensure that the product is real. The downside of a hologram is that it can be tested only using special types of equipment. The ball is on the counterfeiter’s court as they are aware of how consumers identify the hologram. 

Designs

The most important clue is to know the design of the product. Each product has its distinguishable design. It can be known for its design- Travel-friendly, easy to use, disabled-friendly, etc. Recently Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez launched a variety of cosmetics products. The applicator of products was designed in such a way that people with arthritis can easily use it. 

Each bag and garment has its uniques qualities that distinguish them from others. Sabyasachi, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, etc are some of the brands with unique designs.

Cosmetic products can be tested out by the weariness, texture of the product and smell. Fake products usually have a strong scent to them because of the cheap strong toxins used to get pigmentation. Also, they do not glide onto the skin perfectly as original and appear tacky on the skin. Sometimes these products can also allergic reactions which can cause irreparable damage to the skin.

Fake websites

A slight change in the URL can land a consumer on the wrong website which will lead the consumer to think that they are buying from the authentic website. Recently fake websites with the same design, logo of major online shopping hubs such as Flipkart and Amazon are also on the run for phishing scams.                                                         

Not only does this harm the consumers but also other aspects such as economy, human rights of laborers, designers, inventors, artists, etc. Although domestic and International Intellectual Property laws safeguard, this doesn’t seem to end and contrarily increasing year by year.

 Since counterfeiting is an organized crime, people involved never reveal their illegal earnings thereby committing tax fraud. This idea inculcates in young minds to join black markets as it is an easy way of earning money. The law of the land is not stringent enough to dissuade them from doing such acts.

The influx in counterfeit goods can harm economic growth, dissuading inventors to create new inventions due to the rise of fake products, loss of foreign investments, and negative impact on brands. Other ill-effects of the production of fake products are, Labourers working for illegal black markets work endlessly in intolerable working conditions with minimum wage, disregard to environmental pollution (manufacturing fake products requires strong toxins and dyes which is detrimental to the environment), and no grievance redressal for customers.

Although there are laws that protect IP such as the Copyright Act, Trademark Act, Designs Act, Customs Act, Indian Penal Code, etc. all of this will be in vain if no action is taken by the appropriate authority. Various effective measures can be implemented on behalf of the government such as interaction with policymakers such as Governors and Ministers, Police officials- their lack of resources, lack of understanding of ground staff, insensitive to the seriousness of the problem, and urging industry and citizen to come forward, Custom Officials- to take action promptly on export and import of suspected items. 

Those consumers who are ready to buy counterfeit or knock-off products should bear in mind that they are indirectly supporting organized crime and those consumers who want to buy authentic products simple advice- “Caveat Emptor”.

Lining

The inside of the bag is not paid as much attention to by counterfeiters, as often shoppers just check the outside. Sometimes, the colors are not indicative of a genuine bag. To familiarize yourself with the right shade, search the interior of an authorized seller’s bag. It’s meant to be the very same color as the real thing, not just a similar one.

Specifications

When it comes to identifying fakes, the devil is in the details. The pockets are in the wrong places, zips in the wrong color. Counterfeiters also work from pictures instead of the original handbag and the finer details can be missed.

Packaging

There should be no plastic wrapping wrap or bubble wrap around the handles and your handbag should arrive in a dust bag.

Fabric and materials

Fake bags use materials of poor quality; instead of being soft and supple, leather can feel like plastic or the fabric’s dye work is uneven and splotchy.

Stitching

There are tight, even stitches in authentic designer bags, while knockoff bags can have loose, shoddy workmanship, imperfect stitches, or even broken stitches where cloth is glued rather than sewn, particularly on the inside.

Logos of designers

Most designers affix their bags with signature logo plates. Although fake plates can be distorted or slightly inaccurate, such plates should be crisply printed. A typical trick is to misspell the name of the designer: for instance, Prada becomes Proda. Look also for logos printed on interior linings – this detail is often absent from fake bags.

Author: Author: Lipika Sharma
Lipika Sharma is a practical and well-oriented law student, pursuing her BA- LLB (Hons.) degree from Fairfield Institute of Management and Technology, GGSIPU. She is highly inclined towards Constitutional law, Criminal law, ADR, IPR, and Family law. However, she is keen on exploring emerging fields of law.

We have made the task a little easier for you, dive in to 5 tips on how to develop a collaboration strategy for expanding a brand.

1) Know your Audience

It is important that you identify the reason why you need to collaborate with other brands with your brand. Being pretty straightforward about who your customer is and gathering all the details you know about them is really important. Most recently, Adidas and Beyonce have collaborated to create a line of sneakers and clothing (Adidas x IVY PARK). This collaboration is the outcome of Adidas’ business strategy aimed at attracting more female buyers.

2) Create a list of future partners/collaborators

Finding the right match for the expansion is important. This can mean the difference between your successful expansion and your business’s failed attempt to expand.

3) Prepare a proposal for the collaboration.

Once you have a list of potential collaborators, it is necessary at this stage to prepare a collaboration proposal where you can describe the following:

• What do you intend to provide for the collaboration?
• What do you intend to gain from your collaboration?
• The existence of the collaboration as it applies to any potential partner listed.

4) Start sending emails to prospective partners.

Send out emails to initiate a dialogue with possible brands who might collaborate. When this is done and you start to hold conversations with the brands, it is important that you use the discussion to establish comprehensive collaboration plans.

5) Start with an agreement on collaboration/partnership.

Finally, guarantee that in an agreement the specific terms of the collaboration are documented. The agreement usually outlines the business nature and aims of the partnership, the collaborators’ contributions, and their individual rights and obligations. It would minimize future disputes or differences between the contributors by producing a written agreement.

Author: Lipika Sharma
Lipika Sharma is a practical and well-oriented law student, pursuing her BA- LLB (Hons.) degree from Fairfield Institute of Management and Technology, GGSIPU. She is highly inclined towards Constitutional law, Criminal law, ADR, IPR, and Family law. However, she is keen on exploring emerging fields of law.

DECIDE WHICH IP YOU NEED TO LICENSE

1. Patent Licensing

The agreements in which a patent owner permits someone else to use their patent. The patent owners license their patents in order to make them easily produced and distributed. A patent license is a performance-based agreement that is very specific to meeting milestone benchmarks and deadlines, such as development of IP and payments of royalties.

2. Trademark Licensing

Trademarks, including brand names or slogans, are signifiers of commercial origin. Trademark license arrangements allow trademark owners to allow their IP to be used by others. Trademark owners license their trademarks for commercial goods, such as apparel, iPhone cases, or food products

3. Copyright Licensing

Copyrights exist in works of visual art, like paintings, movies, or songs. Copyrights also exist in characters, like Mickey Mouse. Copyright licensing agreements are often used for consumer goods, just like trademark licenses. They are also used for distributorships, such as with musical works or movies.

4. Trade Secret Licensing

Trade secrets encompass a broad variety of IPs, from formulas, know-how, software, business systems, production processes, and all data forms, such as seller, competitor, and customer information. The formulas for Coca-Cola and the recipe for KFC chicken are two of the most popular examples of trade secrets. Non-disclosure agreements also come with trade secret license agreements.

DECIDE WHETHER YOU’D WANT YOUR LICENSE TO BE EXCLUSIVE.

1. Exclusive

Those agreements that establish a unique relationship between the licensor and the licensee are exclusive licenses. The licensor accepts under all forms of licensing arrangements that the contractor is the only one who can make use of the IP. These normally cost the licensee more.

2. Non-exclusive

In a non-exclusive license, the licensor may be licensing the IP out to more than one licensee. These types of license agreements usually cost less for the licensee.

3. Sole

In a sole license, the licensor agrees to use just one licensee, but the licensor retains the right to continue to use their IP, as well.

DECIDE ON THE DURATION OF YOUR LICENSE.

1. Perpetual

A perpetual license is one where the licensee buys the right to use the IP just once and then can use it for a lifetime. Often, these are the more expensive type of license because the licensor won’t receive ongoing royalties. Perpetual licenses can be seen most commonly in software.

2. Term

A term license is organized one of two ways:

(1) the licensee can pay a one-time fee for a certain term or,

(2) the license can pay per use (these are traditional royalties).

Term licenses are common across all industries. Although many people don’t think of it this way, when you pay Netflix each month, part of that fee is a license to use their proprietary digital software.

As you can see, there are several types of licensing. A skilled and experienced IP attorney can assist you find out what type of license agreement you need, as well as what needs to go into that agreement.

Author: Lipika Sharma
Practical and well-oriented law student, pursuing her BA- LLB (Hons.) degree from Fairfield Institute of Management and Technology, GGSIPU. She is highly inclined towards Constitutional law, Criminal law, ADR, IPR, and Family law. However, she is keen on exploring emerging fields of law

1. Research your niche in the market– Think of a particular market that is actually not being filled in the apparel industry. Attempt to find a product that should exist but the big clothing company somehow does not offer.
2. Create a business plan–

• Write down your goals and objectives.
• Analyze the market and evaluate your strategy for marketing.
• Describe the product and how it will be produced.
• Identify your target audience.
• Include your financial needs and management organization.
• Research about your Competitions in the market.

3. Begin planning the first collection- Make sure that your first collection represents your clothing line’s core essence and contains the style that your clients consistently demand from you. Try to produce your product in a cost-effective way. Being a successful fashion designer is always a combination of the desirable and the achievable.
4. Think of a brand name and logo- While you do not need a descriptive name as they cannot be registered, you should have something that individuals can attach to your brand. It should tell consumers who it’s made by, about the quality of your collection, so that it can protect against counterfeiters.
5. Build a web presence- Design a website that best represents your brand, builds credibility for your business, and to the best advantage shows off your clothing line.
6. Select a Price Point- What price point is enough for you to make a profit in order to maintain your business over time? How much is charged by the competitors? What do your clients think about the value of your product? Research is always the key!
7. Distribution-Do you want to sell your goods only through online channels of distribution? Also in retail? Determine where you would like your products to be sold.
8. Find Investors or Partners– For a new startup, one of the greatest problems is saving enough capital to sustain and expand the venture. Determine what you expect to achieve from a partnership or relationship with an investor. Identify what sort of investor is ideal for your fashion company and explore possibilities for temporary brand partnerships to give a boost to your business.