3 Ways That Counterfeit Goods Will Destroy Your Business

If you come up with an amazing product idea, people are going to want to steal it. As soon as you start making a bit of money, other companies will catch on and start looking for ways to make money from your idea as well, that’s why copyright and patent law is so important. The problem is, companies don’t always realize how damaging it is if people start counterfeiting or recreating your product and selling it, so they don’t have the right legal protection in place. They assume that the original will always come out on top and the customer won’t be interested in these imitations but, unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Another big misconception is that fakes can actually help your business because people will see the difference in quality between those and the real thing, and the businesses that are selling fakes are just helping to push your brand. That isn’t true at all and counterfeiters can seriously damage your business if you aren’t careful. These are just some of the problems that you will face if you don’t take care of counterfeiters. 

1. Lost Sales 

When people think of fake goods, they picture terrible quality products that are easy to distinguish from the real thing, but some counterfeiters are a lot more advanced than that these days. There are a lot of fake designer clothes, for example, that are almost exactly the same as the real thing. In fact, a lot of consumers say that they are perfectly happy with the fake versions because they’re a lot cheaper and they can’t tell the difference between those and the real thing. That’s a huge problem for you because if somebody else can create a product that matches yours and sell it at a much lower price, you will start to lose a lot of sales very quickly. This is more common than people realize and a lot of companies find that their sales are actually overtaken by their competitors who are selling copies of their products because they offer the same thing for a much lower price. 

2. Damage To The Brand 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have the imitation products that are nowhere near the quality of the real thing. You might think that’s great for you because you don’t have to worry about competition, however, it’s not good for your brand. If these companies are also imitating your package design and using a similar name, it’s easy for consumers to mistake their company for yours, especially if you have a particularly memorable brand. That means your business will be associated with these low quality products and your brand will be significantly damaged. 

3. Legal Costs 

If you find that other companies are copying your products and selling them, you will be forced to launch a legal challenge against them. These cases can be incredibly long, especially if there is some debate about which aspects of the product are protected. A long legal battle is going to be expensive and if you are a new business, it is likely that you will not be able to bear that financial burden. 

If you are aware of counterfeit versions of your products on the market, don’t just ignore it. If you do, it will come back to bite you later on.

This is a contributed post.