The Frugal Economics of Intellectual Property Theft in Nepal

Branding is an imperative paradigm of the business world which must be performed meticulously, for a business wishes to prosper. The idea of branding primarily constitutes ‘creating a distinct identity of your business in the minds of consumers’. Contrary to this essence of branding, replicated brands are becoming increasingly pervasive throughout Nepal. 

These duplicitous brands function as entirely different entities, oftentimes, by audaciously adding or changing a syllable in an established brand name from international business avenues. As such, it is safe to say that intellectual property rights of Nepal are in complete shambles since these fake brands mostly remain unpunished.

You might say “What is the problem with fake brands if they are creating employment opportunities as well as cheaper alternatives for domestic consumers?” Certainly, consumers that lack awareness are bound to retort with this rhetoric. However, a holistic look at the issue will shed a different light. 

Brands are the result of the blood and sweat of their owners, entrepreneurs, agencies, and the entire team that expend their mental and physical effort for the purpose. The collective effort and intellectual prowess of the team ultimately evolve brands into a distinct and established name overtime. The mere thought of copying the intellectual property of an entity is open to ethical questions when people have invested considerable amounts of time and effort in pursuit of brand establishment.

In fact, these fake brands are generating huge revenues by brazenly profiting on the investments made by original brands for branding and marketing purposes. Fake brands like Kurmure and Cold Cola that use identical packaging of their original brands (Kurkure and Coca Cola respectively), has and will fool many consumers, if not all, as authentic products.

Here are some of the terribly replicated brand names that will make you giggle. Try guessing the original ones.

Should Intellectual Property Laws be Strengthened?

Although Nepal formulated Patent, Design and Trademark Act in 1965, much needs to be worked out on the compliance part of it. As per the data by Online Khabar, there were 900 pending cases against trademark fraud in Nepal in 2021. Out of them, 536 were pending cases from 2020 and 364 cases were registered during the year. Some of the notable cases were filed by Royal Stag, Golden Oak,  Blue Riband. One peculiar case pertains to KKFC which blatantly ripped off the multinational fast-food giant KFC.

Considering that there are a plethora of fake brands across various industries of Nepal, there is a dire need to strengthen intellectual property laws. While the small scale replicated brands of Nepal rarely bat an eye across borders, possibilities of heavy penalties exist if international brands wish to do so.

Furthermore, the digital space of Nepal’s marketing sector has also seen theft of creative content. Click here to read an intellectual property theft accusation made by Pycus Inc. Larceny of creative content is something that must be supervised by Nepal’s government owing to the ever-increasing presence of brands across digital media.