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Ignorance to blame for trademark violations
Women weave kiondos (traditional baskets). Intellectual property right stops businesses from duplicating innovative ideas or products created by others. Photo/JOSEPH KANYI
Posted Monday, August 2 2010 at 00:00
The defendant packaged his product in a very similar package to the plaintiff’s and as a consumer you would be easily confused as to which is which.
The plaintiff recovered successfully against the defendant.
The rate of intellectual property rights awareness in Kenya is low compared to the level of ease through which intellectual property rights can be breached.
Something needs to be done and some public awareness carried out to ensure that the public is aware of the dangers of infringing on trademarks and other well known marks.
In a case such as the one above, the right holder can successfully and by court order halt the sale of goods containing infringed marks.
This means that the infringer will sustain high losses and it may be difficult for a struggling business to ever recover from such a blow.
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