An asset management specialist has warned any business wanting to enter the rapidly expanding Asian market to ensure they have control over their product throughout the supply chain.
Speaking at a Hort Connections seminar, Watermark says Australia has built a reputation as a clean green producer of food, and markets in Asia are screaming out for our products. But its Patent and Trademarks Attorney, Dr Renee White has revealed it has opened the door for fraud and counterfeiting by people wanting into cash in on Australia's brands.
"Maintaining your integrity of brand is very, very important," she said. "You want to maintain your high quality production that is what we are known for. You want to make sure that your delicious fresh produce is actually what the consumer is getting in the Asian market. We do see it time and time again that produce is getting switched at the docks, or they put your logo on someone else’s packaging."
Dr White says investing in new forms of packaging technology and stickers to track products is a worthwhile investment to save money in the long run. But so is basic research from the beginning, which she admits some businesses still do not do. She encourages them to gain a detailed understanding of the market they are entering into, as well as studying trademarks in every country they are supplying, and whether they have the freedom to use it in that country.
"Even though we get people to think about this at the beginning, you'd be surprised at the amount of emergency calls I have got with people saying I've got two tonnes of carrots on the dock and I have just worked out the packaging may not be suitable because someone else may have it in the marketplace," Dr White said.
It may even be necessary to create two separate brands for the same product, if it is entering the same product into different retail chains in the same country, who want the right of sale to a brand exclusively. She also warns against changing a trademark, and not using it in its registered form, even if it is suggested by marketing professionals. Under laws in many countries non-usage of exact branding could open the door for third party challenges, which could see a trademark be lost.
"Your marketing team may come back and says we have changed, we have just got some input and the brand is not doing well, or we don't have enough room on the packaging to fit the entire word or logo so we are going to abbreviate it," the Patent and Trademarks Attorney said. "Even though you think it's only a slight modification just to abbreviate, and use two instead of one, you need to make sure if you change it you update your trademark registration."
Dr White also urges against complacency, saying that when a company rebrands or a product evolves, it should go through the research and development stages again to get the most up-to-date facts about the market.
For more information:Dr Renee White
Watermark
Phone: +613 9819 1664