As Noddy Holder of Slade once screeched, “It’s CHRISTMAAAAAAAAS!!!”.
For many of us that means ham, potato salad, hotly contested beach cricket matches, pavlova and “Snoopy’s Christmas” assaulting our ears one too many times.
They are all integral parts of traditional Kiwi Christmases. Increasingly, sadly, so are the shrieks and shouts of excitement, which swiftly turn to cries of disappointment.
No. Not that Santa didn’t bring the much desired gift but rather, after mere nano-seconds, it has broken. Doesn’t work properly. Doesn’t quite match the description on the box.
Counterfeit goods are becoming more readily available in New Zealand and, to most consumers, hard to tell from the genuine article.
This a problem for consumers and brand owners alike.
For brand owners it is not just loss of revenue, but loss of reputation. Loss of goodwill and reputation in a brand can be critical to a company’s well-being and balance sheet.
When a much sought after product doesn’t work as it should, it is not the counterfeiter’s reputation that is damaged but that of the brand owner. When a consumer seeks to rely on a product guarantee only to learn that the product is counterfeit and therefore not covered, their first reaction is unlikely to be, “Oh well! It’s my fault. I should have known the price was too good to be true”. However unfair, however unwarranted, it is the company’s reputation that suffers. The company is the one on the ground in New Zealand while the counterfeiter is many miles away.
CreateIP can help companies take steps to prevent the importation into New Zealand of counterfeit product through the implementation of simple yet effective measures such as lodging border protection copyright and trade marks notices with New Zealand customs. These notices allow Customs to intercept counterfeit items before they reach the marketplace. We also work with Chinese IP lawyers who can lodge equivalent notices with the Chinese Customs authorities. These notices stop the counterfeit product being exported from China.
