Company story

A market analysis showed that 90 percent of Germans associate the name Knirps with an umbrella. The popularity of the brand is a strong selling point as well. Not every umbrella is a Knirps though, especially in terms of quality. Knirps umbrellas now have a five-year warranty under which damaged products are repaired by the manufacturer. This warranty helps to avoid waste in contrast to cheap umbrellas that end up being thrown away after being used a few times. Good products with high quality - a claim that deserves protection.

Beatrice Kobleder joined the marketing team in the Austrian headquarters in 2018, the year in which Knirps celebrated its 90th anniversary. Throughout the past century, Knirps has successfully set up an international sales structure: 28 franchise partners sell the original products in over 60 countries worldwide. Since Knirps does not have an in-house sales team, a marketing team of three at the headquarters support their franchise partners with marketing campaigns as well as product relaunches and information.

Still, it does not stop plagiarists from labelling their fake Knirps umbrellas as original products in their online shop in order to attract customers. Freeloaders take advantage of the good product reputation and insult the thorough product management behind the original. Knirps invests a lot of time into extensive testing and improving of the product which does not occur with the counterfeited goods. „When a customer buys a fake Knirps, they assume that our brand does not stand for quality - this is a huge issue,“ Kobleder explains. Apart from the direct loss of sales caused by fake products, the damage also affects future sales. Plagiarism is not collateral damage, but a problem against which companies must proactively fight.

Challenges

Knirps registered its brand as well as special handles and functions in all partner countries. This is the most important legal basis to take action against plagiarism. Additionally, the long-established company employs a law firm on this subject. International sales partners report counterfeit goods to the headquarter. And yet, the fight against plagiarism seems like it cannot be won. “Due to our more than ninety year history, I cannot say where the first trademark infringement appeared. However, the number of cases has increased significantly due to the internet,” Kobleder states. „Since the invention of online marketplaces, everything has gotten a lot worse.“

Most online trademark infringements that Knirps suffers from are through the use of decoy tactics. Since there is a massive awareness for the brand, many customers looking for an umbrella directly search with the buzzword ‘Knirps.’ However, this buzzword is a brand name and the manufacturer must crack down on all trademark infringements. Many of the most damaging product offers have the keyword Knirps at least once, for example ‘Pocket Umbrella Knirps.’ Counterfeiters violate the rights to the word mark which reduces the value of the original Knirps umbrellas.

Online marketplaces in particular are popular with counterfeiters as trading hubs. Especially Germany and also Asia are moving into focus. Many retailers are illegally selling their umbrellas on Amazon under the ‘Knirps’ name. More than two thirds of all counterfeit cases take place there.  Companies worldwide are responsible for researching, documenting and reporting false offers.

Finally, a German sales partner forwarded a contact to the Knirps headquarters.

Solution

The determining point for the cooperation with Sentryc was an Asian manufacturer who posted over 300 listings of plagiarized Knirps product on Amazon. Kobleder tried getting rid of the listings manually, but the effort was too time consuming and cost prohibitive. Professional help was needed. Sentryc automatically scans over 150 international online marketplaces and platforms for abnormalities with its brand protection software. This includes company names, keywords, detailed descriptions, prices as well as hidden links. Depending on where new hotspots appear, Knirps is able to flexibly adjust the search paramaters. The software, which is self-explanatory and does not require any training, can be accessed via an online panel. Since the tool does not depend on in-house data, integration into the corporate structure of Knirps was not necessary.

At the beginning of the corporation, Sentryc only received information from Knirps regarding the individual search request. After the integrated learning machine was tested for a few rounds, the software was able to scan all internationally listed offers in countries relevant for Knirps. The AI had adjusted itself automatically. „The software is highly flexible and inspires us again and again. AI is making more and more accurate assessments of whether or not the product offer is a Knirps.“

Beatrice Kobleder is the key user and takes care of the account mostly by herself. Nevertheless, she does not need much time to find the plagiarized products. “It has become a morning ritual. Logging into the system every morning and checking to see where possible fake offers have been found. Working with Sentryc is easy and anything but time consuming.“ If dubious sites arise, the marketing specialist does not hesitate to immediately take them down. She finds that working with international fakes in her native language is more agreeable. „Since we are made in Germany, it’s easier.“

Results

In the meantime, offers that infringe trademark rights have been successfully removed from online marketplaces and plagiarists prevented from uploading their fraudulent offers. Since the beginning of the collaboration in March 2020, Sentryc has discovered relevant findings in the four digit range. 96 percent of these discoveries have turned out to be actual counterfeits. All fake offers can be removed within 24 hours with a click of the ‘Take Down’ button. If done manually, this would be impossible. "If Amazon dealers now offer 300 pirate copies, they won't do it a second time," says Kobleder. This is mainly due to certain automations of the software: a filter that examines new offers from the same manufacturer for similar features and automatically removes them if the comparison is positive.

"This filter makes taking action against product pirates even easier: Suspicious dealers and offers are blocked directly, it’s that simple. This means that our findings are kept within limits!"

The individually programmed algorithm is set so that account licensed dealers and offers are not on the softwares’ radar. Therefore, all Knirps partners and licensees worldwide are spared. Marketing managers can see current reports on figures and sources on the dashboard. “Sentryc lists and documents all fakes. So we have something we can prosecute with.” The software saves all details, including a screenshot of the fake offer, for legal action.

Outlook

Initially, the Knirps team thought they would face resistance from the freeloaders and would have to take forceful legal action against them. But to this day it has not happened - a successful defense of intellectual property. Knirps’ plan is to expand the cooperation with Sentryc in the future. Additionally, the German sales partner Doppler is getting on board with brand protection regarding its own sales brand. Raising awareness about brand piracy is an important issue. Sentryc is communicating to the world that Knirps is a protected trademark and will permanently be defended. Actively explaining plagiarism to customers is also part of the fight against piracy. Knirps would like to educate their customers who value quality to recognize a real Knirps.