I read somewhere that every setback teaches you a life lesson. I also learnt a lesson today. I went to a flea market/Saturday bazaar near the residential society where I reside. I found some branded shoes at dirt-cheap prices. After bargaining, the shopkeeper was willing to offer a further discount. The same was the case at clothing counters. Branded jeans were available at super low prices. Innumerable people were flocking to these shops to buy these branded clothes and shoes.
I also got lured and attracted to this cheap shopping. I decided to buy clothes and a pair of shoes. But once I started examining them, I felt a sharp difference in quality. The quality was below par. I enquired from the shopkeeper. He retorted that it was a rejected export lot which is sold by companies at low prices in the local market. I was not able to digest this response. A branded product, even if rejected lot, cannot be so substandard in quality. I felt that these shopkeepers are misusing the brand logo to fool customers and sell local products. I ended up without shopping for anything.
I shared my experience with my father, who is a legal professional and serves as a District Judge. My father apprised me about the concept of Intellectual property rights like trademarks, copyrights and patents and counterfeit products. For the first time realized how much hard work and expenditure is involved in establishing a trademark and building its reputation. This trademark helps in distinguishing the product from one brand to another. Even an illiterate person or a child can distinguish between two brands merely by seeing the trademark.
I realised that some of the shopkeepers in the flea market were engaging in unfair trade practices by selling counterfeit products and were infringing the trademark. I came to know that infringing a trademark is a punishable criminal offence. But I was absolutely surprised that despite legal deterrents, the trademarks are being infringed publicly and no action is being taken.
These big international companies must have spent a lot of money on advertisements to build these brands, but their products are being sold in bulk as counterfeits. I do not know whether these brand owners have any information about these infringements in local flea markets. I wonder how difficult it would be to enforce trademark rights and stop the sale of these counterfeit articles. They may take action in one area, but these flea markets will shift to other areas, and it is actually impossible to track and completely stop this infringement.
I realised that this infringement is also happening in the area of music, books and other intellectual property rights. People study hard and do a lot of research to develop a brand, a copyright or a patent, and someone copies their hard work without any acknowledgement and starts making unfair advantage and profits out of it. I really feel very sad and scared about this. It discourages a researcher from spending their time and energy on innovation. People should have high ethics and morals and shall not infringe the intellectual property rights of others. I also vow not to buy any infringing product.
I am motivated to read more about intellectual property rights not only because it is an area which needs to be understood by everyone, but because of the fear that tomorrow the research done by me can also be infringed, and I need to educate myself to defend my work.
