We suppose you have heard the story of the boiled frog? Scientist debate about how frogs really behave in hot water but the story still tells its' tale:
The story is that if you put a frog in boiling water, it will immediately try to jump out. If it will succeed, we don't know.
But if you put it in tepid water and heat it sufficiently slowly, it will gradually get accustomed to the heat and not realise that it's getting boiled. Until it's too late.
Getting Attacked by Counterfeiters Has Similarities With Boiling Frogs.
If counterfeiters were to launch a massive attack on your entire product line, you're likely to go into full alert and fight them with everything you've got.
But, if they start nagging your business at the edges, little by little, you might do nothing. As they meet no resistance, counterfeiters are likely to infringe more and more. Suddenly, one day customers hesitate at buying your products because the risk is too great that they might get a fake instead, your reputation is pulverised and your brand value is gone.
We won't mention any names here, but we're sure you can come up with suggestions on your own of formerly prestigious brands whose value has been hard hit by counterfeiting and copyright infringement* to the extent that you now see their brands more often on tees in refugee camps than in upmarket streets at home.
Nip counterfeiting in the bud!
Counterfeiters are like water. They follow the rule of least resistance. Their entire business model is about that. What is the cheapest way of making a look-a-like? What is easiest to copy? and Who is the easiest target, the most passive? If one brand fights back and another doesn't, which one will they drop and which will they bet on, do you think?
That's why you need to nip counterfeiting and copyright infringement* in the bud.
There are two ways - in combination - to go about that: Action and Prevention.
Action
Traditionally, legal action has been the main approach. Chasing down counterfeiters with detectives or police and bringing them to court. That's still valid, but has the disadvantage of taking time. A LONG time, and being very expensive. Often, it presupposes having registered trademarks and copyrights as evidence of your immaterial rights to designs and brands. Cumbersome, complicated and expensive, especially if you have a global presence.
In certain markets, some companies employ a small army of inspectors, canvassing markets and retailers looking for copies and misused trademarks. Manual, cumbersome, slow and – just like legal action – something you do when the damage is already done.
As much of the sales of counterfeits is now through online retail, a new kind of "inspectors" have appeared in recent years, an entire industry of online scouts, identifying online retailers and sellers, marketing and distributing counterfeit products. Once identified, they work to get them shut down in various ways.
Still, these actions are about limiting the impact of a problem that already has arisen. Not about stopping it from developing in the first place. That brings us to the topic of prevention.
Prevention
Traditionally and fundamentally, you need to establish ownership of the immaterial property through protecting trademarks and copyrights as described above. It doesn't really prevent people from infringing on those rights, but it gives us a standing in court. It establishes our ownership of brands, trademarks and designs.
True prevention is about making your product less appealing to imitate. To truly nip the problem in the bud.
The "less appealing" comes in two versions: Making them complicated to imitate and making it easy to tell copies and originals apart.
Making Them Complicated to Imitate
Only few types of products are worth the trouble of making them complicated to copy. Typically complex and delicate products, so complicated to produce that few if any are able to.
Making It Easy to Tell Copies and Originals Apart
At Blue Cromos, we're into the other kind of prevention: making it easy to tell copies and originals apart. In that, we are not alone, but we are pretty alone in how we do it.
Others Add Complexity
We work with what is there while others add a wide range of identifiers to products or packages. Holograms, advanced labels, fluorescent ink, transmitters.... you name it. When you think of it, it is not your product that supposedly gets trusted, it's their method of identifying it. One more thing to get trusted. One more thing to add to your product. One added complexity in your production and in your supply chain. Most probably, unique equipment to distribute for identification to anyone doing that. And... just one more thing for counterfeiters to counterfeit. Supposedly difficult to do, until someone does it.
We Make it Easy
At Blue Cromos we work with what you've got. The product itself or your existing packaging or labelling, depending on type of product and the circumstances.
Nothing added. We take an image at the end of your production line, in the flow of production. Our advanced system analyses that image at a level of detail impossible for the human eye, creates a visual digital fingerprint of the item, gives it a unique ID and store it in our secure cloud. Until it is scanned again and sent to the cloud for comparison with what has left your factory. If it's a match, you're good to go. If it's not, it's a No.
Depending on product that scan can be made using a smartphone and our app, in conditions no more special than what you need for a decent selfie or, in some cases, using special equipment at an authorised dealer or workshop, equipment that is special but requiring no special skills from the person operating it.
Through our easy product authentication, identifying counterfeits becomes as easy as it becomes fast and definitive. No scope left for discussion. It's binary: genuine or not. The time to take action is minimised and the process through courts becomes becomes smoother and faster.
And, most important, it's a great deterrent for counterfeiters. Once they realise how easy they will get exposed if they copy your stuff, they will – like water reaching and obstacle – choose a different route, a different victim.
We do have a supplementary method of product authentication that doesn't require the initial scan in the factory of each item. Instead we use AI to create a rule to use for identification of genuine products. With astonishing accuracy and without any installation in your factory whatsoever. Ideal for use with fast moving consumer goods, where it's impossible to use scanners or upload to cloud in production facilities, or when you look for a fast roll-out across many production lines.
*counterfeiting and copyright infringement.
Counterfeiting is when criminals create a copy of a product and sell it as an original. I.e. there is a supposedly identical original product to compare with.
Copyright infringement is when there is no such original. Rogue producers just take any of their existing, cheap products and put the logo of a prestigious brand on it. I.e. there is no original product even. You might find the same design with a range of different prestige brand logos attached.
Photo © 2010 J. Ronald Lee. Used under Creative Commons 2.0 license
Komentáře