Know Your Private Label Rights’ Rights
We all know that online shopping is not the same as shopping at a brick and mortar store, but do you really know what your private label rights are? Do you know how important it is to be aware of those rights? It's incredibly important that consumers understand their rights so they can shop with confidence. Let’s take a closer look.
Private Label Rights: Know Your Rights! As an online shopper, it's easy to forget about private label right law and not really care about where our products are coming from. With most online stores, we know what our rights are, but we don't really care about it one way or the other unless something goes wrong. That's when we care and that's when we realize our rights. Unfortunately, it can be a little more tempting to shop online than in a brick and mortar store because an online store is always accessible to us. We can order things any time of the day or night, which can give us the impression that all is well and there are no problems with our purchases. But that's not always the case.
It is incredibly easy for online orders to go wrong and anyone who has had an issue with their order knows exactly what I'm talking about. We've all had the experience of finding a product that is defective, doesn't match the description, or is not of the right quality. Under the law, these things are wrong and illegal under both state and federal law. That's why it is incredibly important that we know all of our rights so we can shop with confidence.
What are Private Label Rights?
Often when I talk about private label rights I am talking about intellectual property (IP), or as many people call it, trademark law. In fact, many times you'll hear me refer to IP as trademark law because there is some overlap between them. But, IP involves so much more than trademarks. In fact, it is a whole set of laws that govern businesses. They work together to help protect the interests of businesses by providing them with a certain amount of protection against overreaching competitors or consumers.
Trademark rights protect specific words or symbols as trademarks and cover brand names, logos, slogans, and various indications that may be used to identify a particular company's products. They are also often referred to as trademark rights because those are the elements which are protected under the law for the most part. We will discuss trademarks in more detail later in this article, but for now we want to focus on private label rights because there is overlap with IP.
Trademarks are a form of private label rights. Under trademark law, a company can prevent a competitor from using the same or similar trademarks as the business. So, if a competitor used the same name or slogan but is not authorized by that business for use in their trade name then there would be problems and possible legal action could be taken against the infringer by an owner of that trademark.
So, for example, let's say I wanted to open my own cake shop locally and decided to call it "The Cake Shop." I may have trademarked The Cake Shop because if someone else opens up a shop called "The Cake Shop" they would likely be infringing on my protected rights under the law.
While I may own the trademark, that is not the only thing I own. Through private label rights, it is possible to tell a business what they can and cannot sell within their store. Private label rights refer to right that a product's manufacturer can give another company to resell products in the reseller's store.
When you think about it, this right makes perfect sense. You are not going to be able to resell a product that you cannot sell, so the retailer must be able to make the product available for purchase by its customers. This will keep the product moving from store to store and give the customer a wide selection of products to choose from.
But what happens if something goes wrong? The law states that manufacturers have rights in their products. So, if a manufacturer has given you private label rights, you have certain rights and protections when doing business with that company as well. Under private label right law, manufacturers have the right to enforce their exclusive claims on trademarks and other copyrights in the products they create.
Conclusion
Under the law, private label rights refer to trademark and copyright rights that a manufacturer has in its products. If you have ever shopped on the Internet or gone to a brick and mortar store, you are probably aware of private label rights because most online stores will allow you to order anything they sell with their store name.
For example, I may go onto a product's website and find that they sell a product under the company name "Authentic Lingerie." It's not often that I would actually want this kind of lingerie but if it's in the store I would certainly be able to purchase it.