TRANSBORDER REPUTATION IN RESPECT TO FAKE PRODUCTS AND BRAND PROTECTION

The concept of trans border reputation has come into light after the globalization and liberalization of the economy. A product is said to acquire a tans border reputation when it is though not present or not being marketed in a particular country but still people know about it and that product has acquired popularity. This is very common now a days as we can get information about different brands which are not available in India through various means like magazines, internet, television etc. and thus fake products of the same brand might be available in India which is not known to the brand owner.

The basic question arises that does trans border reputation of a brand can be saved in another country where it’s not even available? If we seek the answer from Indian perspective then we see that “yes” very often the Indian courts have rescued the brand owner in such cases and also have come up with some guidelines for the same in the famous case of N.R. Dongre & Others V. Whirlpool Corporation, 1996 where the court accepted that the advertisement of the trade mark without existence of the goods in the market is also considered as the use of the mark. It’s not at all necessary that the mark of the brand owner should be known all over the country. Thus, a foreign trader having no place of business can maintain an action of passing off in India by fulfilling following grounds:

Ø  The goods and services are of international reputation.

Ø  Advertised in international journal or magazine, which has circulation in India and many customers or potential customers are readers of such magazines or journals.

Ø  It has been brought to India by travelers in the form of importation.

Ø  The defendant (against whom the complaint is filed) has failed to give satisfactory reason as to adoption of the mark of brand owner.

Though, this approach is bit outdated in the era of internet and globalization as we can’t only rely on the circulations and magazines but still it can be called a relief, at least some relief is better than no relief. Also, there are many other famous cases where Indian judiciary has helped. So, if the brand owner gets any information on fake products which are in India then proper action can be taken and they should know that can they deal with such kind of situations very well.

Trans border reputation is an easy target for the pirates as they think that a place where it’s not available easily can become a hub of fake products and they can earn huge profits while it is not known to the brand owner as well. So all in all it’s a very lucrative options for the pirates to create such fake products and market them. 

Brand owners can connect to various brand protection services in India that are available if they get any such information about trans border reputation spill and can seek help from the same. One such admired platform is Brands and Fakes, with whose help they can protect their brand in a place where their brand is not available freely to the public.

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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