Instead Of Nasty Lawsuit Against Counterfeiter... Why Not Look At Partnership Opportunities?
from the not-everything-needs-a-lawsuit dept
It's all too common for IP lawyers to go to the legal nastygram first, rather than recognizing that perhaps the "infringement" is an opportunity. Take, for example, this (amusing) story about how when Prada, the famous design company, first got started, Miuccia Prada got angry about someone making knockoff products. Except... rather than sue Patrizio Bertelli, who was making the knockoffs, she was convinced by him to make use of his manufacturing capabilities, and the two teamed up... even to the point of eventually getting married to each other. Obviously, that's a pretty extreme example, but the key point is worth repeating: sometimes the better solution is not to freak out and sue over infringement, but to see if that infringement can be used to your advantage.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: counterfeiting, infringement, opportunity, partnership
Companies: prada
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Teamed...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sometimes the threat is expected.
The first part of the case study asks you which of four options you would pursue as your first contact to the counterfeiter, which I believe go something like this:
1) A letter indicating that you are interested in doing business with him.
2) A letter that you would like him to contact you about his Luna Pen operations.
3) A cease-and-desist and that as the rightful holder of the Luna Pen trademark you are preparing legal action against him.
There was one other that was maybe halfway between my options 2 and 3. Most of the American students in the class went for option 2. A few went for option 1.
The two Chinese students in the class were the only ones who went for option 3, and were adamant that were they in the counterfeiter's shoes, they would be unlikely to even bother responding in any way whatsoever to a letter such as option 1 or 2.
Now, that doesn't mean that's what the end result has to be, and that doesn't mean that it's the fastest/best/ethical/most profitable thing to do, but in their minds it was the ONLY way to successfully start the dialog in that cultural context.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]