Look, I’m all for saving money. I don’t have an unlimited shopping budget either, and we all know how hard inflation has hit this year. But sometimes, brands are famous for a reason. The quality of their products might be unlike any other, and the saying “you get what you pay for” exists for a reason. I’m not encouraging you to spend exorbitant amounts of money on luxury brands or blow your rent money on something that you could have easily found at a lower price. But I also think it’s fair for these blatant knock-offs to be roasted online.
And clearly, I’m not the only one who feels this way, as the [Terrible] Off Brands subreddit has nearly 1 million members. There aren’t a lot of rules for the community, but the most important is that the photos shared must feature “an imitation of an existing name brand product or at least be within the concept of it”. And as it turns out, there are plenty of these imitations out there. But these products exist for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, they come about through grocery stores trying to offer a cheaper option that they can still gain profits from, while other times counterfeit product creators try to piggy-back on the success of big brands. This list has it all, so strap in and enjoy this rollercoaster of knock-off products.
To learn more about the legality of this topic, we reached out to Patent Attorney Jacob E. Pittman. First, we wanted to know if it's even legal for businesses to make knock-offs of famous brands or products. "This is a surprisingly complicated question, in that it requires determining which, if any, of the 4 different (but overlapping) categories of intellectual property protections may be involved: (1) patents, (2) copyrights, (3) trademarks, or (4) trade secrets," Jacob told Bored Panda.
"In many cases of a 'blatant knock-off,' the most apparent or 'visible' category involves a sub-category of trademarks, called 'trade dress,' which covers the overall 'look and feel' of a product," he explained. "That is, a company can sue for infringement, and assert that the knock-off is intentionally mimicking one of their products."
When it comes to the ramifications of selling knock-off products, Jacob says, "In general, a successful infringement suit will award monetary damages to the plaintiff. Determining how much to award is another surprisingly complicated issue, but it often relates to the amount of 'lost' profits that the infringer gained through deception."
We were also curious if companies typically pursue issues like this in court or if they might just let it slide. "It is immensely important for large companies to actively protect their intellectual property," Jacob told Bored Panda. "Through a doctrine known as 'genericism' or 'genericide,' some courts have determined that failing to actively assert your intellectual property rights is akin to not wanting them, and held that those rights have effectively 'lapsed'."
"Companies can and should aggressively pursue any instance that they become aware of, at the very least by sending a cease and desist letter, and then escalating further if necessary," Jacob explained.
Generic brand products aren’t always a bad thing. Especially when it comes to pharmaceuticals, they can save you big bucks and give you equally good results. The important thing is that the ingredients are the same; sometimes you really are paying for just a brand. Plus, according to Consumer Reports, most store brands come out to about 20-25% lower prices. When doing your grocery shopping for the week, taking a quarter off of your grand total can make a huge difference.
And according to 75% of shoppers, store brands are just as delicious or effective as the famous names. I have to admit, I have often been disappointed by ALDI products that are recreations of other big brands, but Trader Joe’s has my heart. Many of their own products are obvious imitations, but they always ensure that the quality is high. In fact, many of their items are actually made in the same factories as our favorite brands and simply labeled differently, so don’t be scared to try the “Crunchy Cinnamon Squares”, “Trader Joe’s O’s” or the “Scandinavian Swimmers”.
One important factor I like to look for in an imitation product is self-awareness. I don’t mind if it’s not exactly the same as what it’s trying to recreate, but it still as to be good. If it’s a food item, it better be delicious. If it’s a household product, it better work well. And if it’s a clothing item, well, I don’t want any blatant knock-offs of famous brands because there is no chance the quality will be as high.
While one can argue that they don’t want to support huge brands because they’re anti capitalist, the more ethical choice is usually not purchasing blatant rip offs. For example, if you don’t want to buy Oreos because you don’t want to support Nabisco, don’t opt for the Great Value brand option because Walmart is one of the largest corporations in the world. And if you want to buy Nike sneakers but can’t afford the originals, going for counterfeit products might be diving into an even more questionable ethical arena.
When it comes to protecting their brand, companies can have a hard time proving that someone is trying to mislead customers or take advantage of their popularity to make sales. But apparently, there is a distinction between counterfeits, knock-offs and replicas, according to Arthur Zaczkiewics at Women’s Wear Daily. A counterfeit is “essentially a product that is identical to another product, and thereby infringes upon the trademark of that product mark”. A knock-off is “a product that resembles another item, but isn’t exactly identical”, and replica is “a relatively new term coined by counterfeiters to promote their products online”.
Amy Goldsmith, partner in the retail group and co-chair of the intellectual property practice group at Tarter Krinsky & Drogin, explained to Women’s Wear Daily how these terms are used and what they mean for companies in a legal sense. “The counterfeit is hard to distinguish from the original — although there are usually quality differences between the genuine goods, labels or packaging and the fake ones,” Goldsmith noted. “Contrary to counterfeiting, infringement is not limited to those who own registrations,” she explained. “If your company has common law rights, then those rights can be infringed by the use of an identical mark or a substantially similar mark in a way that causes confusion.”
While creating and selling counterfeit goods is illegal, the purchasing of them in the United States is not, so it can be very hard to keep them from spreading like wildfire. “The laws assume consumers are innocently being duped and try to protect honest Americans from the bad intentions of manufacturers looking to make a quick buck,” Naree Chan, legal counsel at legaltemplates.net told WWD. “In reality, as we know, many consumers are looking for a cheaper version of a fancy price-tagged item. France and Italy, for example, recognize this reality and punish tourists who buy fake designer goods.”
