Intellectual properties and trademarks in electronic markets

Questions :Why is it important to protect intellectual properties and trademarks in electronic markets? Who should be responsible for protecting L’Oreal’s trademark? Should eBay be held responsible for trademark infringement?

Answers:

From the producers’ perspective, the revenue that can be generated from their creations is greatly reduced once the effect of IP and trademarks is diluted as they are initially the legal rights to protect and differentiate producers’ creations. For the digital goods, producers have limited control over the illegal reproductions and transactions. Even for the physical goods, the electronic markets act as a bleeding ground for counterfeit goods that cannot be easily tracked and identified. Thus, the uniqueness of the products and the value of their brand names are lessened. More importantly, the authority on how and where to sell the products is restrained. Not only the monetary returns, the non-monetary ones ( e.g. image) of the producers cannot be retrieved due to the infringements of IP and trademarks.



From the customers’ perspective, they cannot enjoy the original products since they become more exposed to fake goods which may have an inferior quantity due to the limited info in the electronic markets when buying physical goods online. For the intangible ones, although it seems to be convenient to get what they want by intensive searching and even get the products for free, they may notice the producers become less willing to invent and create more as they see the potential loss of revenue and therefore no intention to innovate.



In L’Oreal and e-Bay case, both of them should be responsible. Without the effort of one side, the trademark cannot be protected. L’Oreal should inspect and track whether some undesirable sales transactions occur on E-bay and report the cases. E-bay should also respond in getting rid of the harm done on the L’Oreal. Although it is a third party, it may hurt E-bay’s reputation if it becomes the platform of illegal transactions.



However, the more and wider the platforms and channels are, the harder the IP and trademarks can be protected especially when it comes to the electronic markets.

by Hayley