In our 7th Year, we met some knock-offs and copycats. Which, they often denied, by claiming it as their brand new product. And even selling it in the largest marketplace in our country, in which we are not. And when we tried to point it out to them, some of them gave us unbelievable responses.
“Hi, I don't get what you meant by 'doing blatant copying'. Seems like our product was designed by one of our friends from another city. They sent and drew some samples, and I agree on this design. And today, after reading your DM, I discovered that it is a bit similar to your design. We are really disappointed and did not intend to copy other designers’ work. We also used to be handcrafter and always created something new with fresh designs."
Ann :
‘A bit similar’ is quite disturbing
I know there is nothing new under the sun.
We combined existing basic elements of design, then considered it as a "new" design
But a hundred percent similarity is not a coincidence. There’ll never be one!
More than one of our client reported their brand and what bothers me the most, was that they didn’t even feel they did a wrong thing.
Their further reaction hits me even harder, during the legal process as our legal team took over the case, because they refused to cooperate, they still promote their copycat product as a new arrival and do endorsements. They listed 100 items in stock at that marketplace and insisted on not pulling it out of the market.
"are they for real?!"
I felt like I was about to lose myself
The legal team collected all the documents we need. Things related to paperworks, and the system made me went through self confidence crisis.
People often forget or they just don’t care that there are real people behind each brand. Real people with feeling and emotion. And they can get hurt, too.
Paul :
I got angry too, of course. Tho it wasn’t that obvious.
As a man, I wanted to come over his place and say directly to him,
“What you are doing is so wrong and you need to stop!”
But the hardest part was actually to see my beloved one in such distress.
I keep reminding her that she will always have my greatest support!
It is just so easy to take the shortcut, but it never ends well!
Doing the right things demands a lot of work so a lot chose not to.
It took some time to realize that the 7th year has its own challenges which brings us to meet our worst enemy. The enemy was not the imitator tho, it was within ourselves, our flesh!
Anger, fear, anxiety, and they never come alone, always hand in hand!
Oh our little faith! We are shaken by things inside! The anger ate all the joy and the grateful heart away! Just like John Owen said :
“Every drop of poison is poison, and will kill, and every spark of fire is fire, and will burn.”
The 7th year brought us to see more about ourselves, to know more the depth of human thoughts and human hearts.
Life lessons many times learned best at hard times, and the hardest part is to count it all joy!
“Don’t lose heart!”**During the time between writing and publishing, the marketplace and the social networking platform has taken down all the picture and the product due to this copyright violation.
This Copyright violation violates both Criminal and Civic laws. It is detrimental to all parties.