Companies sped millions of dollar establishing brand names or trademark to symbolize quality and design host of other product features meant to entice customers to buy their brands to the exclusion of others.
1. Counter feiting and piracy: Counter feit and pirated goods come from a wide range of industries –apparel, automotive parts, agricultural chemicals, pharmaceuticals, records, films, computer software, and baby formula to auto parts.
2. Inadequate protection: The failure to protect intellectual property rights adequately in the world market place can lead to the legal loss of rights in potentially profitable markets. Because patent, process, trademarks, and copy rights are valuable in all countries, some countries have found their assets appropriated and profitably exploited in foreign countries without license or reimbursement.
3. Prior use versus registration: In the United States a common law country, ownership of intellectual property rights is established by prior use –whoever can establish first use is typically considered the rightful owner. For example-a trademark in Jordan belongs to whoever registers it first in Jordan. After a lengthy court battle that went to the Spanish Supreme Court, Nike lost its rights to use the “Nike” brand name for sports apparel in Spain.
