User:Zstillman/Brand Piracy/

Brand piracy is the act of naming or designing a product in a manner which can result in confusion with other better known brands. According to author Robert Tönnis The term brand piracy is unauthorized usage of protected brand names, labels, designs or description of trade. It is a major loss to MNE's around the world as it causes a loss of revenue and image of the brand. In the United States, such brand names and labels are protected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, and willful violations of this protection give rise to specific legal causes of action under the laws of the United States. The Supreme Court of the United States has recognized the need for such protection of brand trademarks on behalf of consumers, affirming such protections as proper through Congress' power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the states. In considering the merit of complaints of violations of trademarks, United States Courts primarily consider the extent of the similarity of the trademarks at issue, whether the goods are related enough such that consumers might be likely to mistake them as coming from a single source, and the intent of the offending party in the design of the product or service at issue. While the United States prohibits these violations federally as trademark violations, some states, such as Illinois, have implemented their own consumer protection statutes separately prohibiting companies from such practices as passing off products as those of another, creating further causes of action under which parties injured by brand piracy can find respite. Counterfeiting is also considered to be another form of brand piracy, albeit one less commonly practiced within the borders of the United States, but counterfeit products bearing the protected branding of well known companies still enter the country from production in outside markets. The government plays a crucial role in countering such brand piracy through the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, who are mandated to seize and destroy counterfeit goods entering the country bearing protected trademarks of brands.

Proponents of stronger protections of brand trademarks argue that allowing consumer confusion over the true manufacturer of products through misleading advertising in branding leads to the dilution of the effects of companies' branding and resultantly harms consumers' as well in regard to their expectations of a product. One outcome of brand piracy seen prominently in the U.S. is initial-interest confusion, whereby consumers are misled upon seeing products in store about the quality and content of the products they are purchasing based on the presence of trademark infringing branding potentially confusing their conception of the true identity of the goods being purchased.