How To Deal with Knock Offs Trying to Ruin Your Products and Brand

Trying to stop counterfeiters from undercutting your price and stealing your revenue is like a game of whack-a-mole. Just when you think you’ve won another one pops up, and the fight starts all over again.

The easiest place to see these knock-offs at work is on Amazon, where independent sellers now account for more than 60% of sales (Amazon, 2025).

What Is Trademark Counterfeiting?

Trademark counterfeiting is putting a fake copy of someone else’s trademark on goods so buyers think they are getting the real product, and it is illegal. Federal law defines a counterfeit as “a spurious mark which is identical with, or substantially indistinguishable from, a registered mark” (15 U.S.C. § 1127).

The fake mark is usually so close to the real one that buyers can’t tell them apart: the counterfeiter profits, the buyer gets an inferior product, and the brand owner loses sales and reputation.

A knock-off is different: it copies the look or features of your product but sells under another name. Counterfeits are stopped with your trademark registration, while knock-offs usually call for a design patent, utility patent, or trade dress claim.

What Knock Offs Do to Your Brand

Knock-off products do more than hurt your bottom line. The loss of sales is just the start of the problem.

Another major problem is that counterfeiters have become more sophisticated. Consumers cannot identify the difference between the real thing and the fake.

When this happens consumers will associate the inferior product with your brand. Now your company’s reputation is under attack.

You may find that consumers leave negative reviews for their knock-off product on the legitimate company’s website and product listings. If these negative reviews happen on Amazon, they do double damage.

With combined listings, customers can unknowingly buy a knock off from the official listing. Finally, these counterfeits risk your relationships with other businesses.

If you have agreements with retailers and distributors, they may think you have violated these agreements by selling your product for lower on other platforms.

Protect Your Product Production

If you decide to manufacture your product overseas, you can take a few steps to protect your product. Do your research and only work with reputable companies.

Look for a company that has employees on the ground in the country you plan to manufacture in.

Next, break up the production process among multiple locations and vendors. Produce the parts in one factory, then assemble them in another. This prevents anyone from knowing the whole process.

Protect Your Product Legally

The best place to start legally protecting your business is in your own country. Start by protecting your brand.

File trademarks for your company name and logo. This will help set your company apart from the knock-offs and make it easier for consumers to identify the differences.

To enroll in Amazon Brand Registry, Amazon requires a pending or registered trademark for your brand name or logo, issued by a government trademark office in a country with an Amazon store (Amazon). While trademarks provide national protection, they can also prevent international companies that export goods to the U.S. from selling them under your trademark.

In 2019, Amazon launched Project Zero, which combines automated protections, a self-service tool that lets brands remove counterfeit listings themselves, and optional product serialization. Project Zero requires a registered trademark and a track record of accurate reports through Brand Registry.

Next, consider filing copyrights and patents. These will help protect your individual products.

These steps protect your business in your home country, but not abroad. You will need to file in each country where you want protection.

If you find that many of the knock-offs come from China, you can look into filing for a patent in China. Examination there can take a year or more, and you cannot enforce the patent until it is granted.

Enforcing Your Protections Against Counterfeiters

Once you have your trademarks and patents in place, you can use them to protect your company against counterfeiters. The Lanham Act is a federal statute that lets you file a federal claim for trademark infringement.

Tactics that usually resolve trademark infringement disputes, such as a cease and desist letter or a licensing deal, often don’t work against counterfeiters. They tend to be fly-by-night, hard-to-identify sellers, often based outside the United States.

To be successful in your claim, you need to show that the distributor offered counterfeit products for sale. It does not matter if the offender knows the items were counterfeit.

If successful though, there are plenty of remedies available. You could gain a permanent injunction, financial compensation, and seizure of all knock off products. For more information on international trademark infringement, see this article.

Suing Counterfeiters and Recovering Damages

If you can identify the counterfeiters, you can sue them in a trademark infringement lawsuit that asserts both infringement and counterfeiting, which carries stronger money remedies. For intentional counterfeiting, the court must award three times your damages or the counterfeiter’s profits, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney’s fees, unless it finds extenuating circumstances. Instead of proving actual losses, you can elect statutory damages of $1,000 to $200,000 per counterfeit mark per type of goods sold, or up to $2,000,000 if the use was willful (15 U.S.C. § 1117).

Courts can also order counterfeit labels, packaging, and the means of making them delivered up and destroyed (15 U.S.C. § 1118), which keeps the fakes out of the stream of commerce.

Seek Immediate Relief: TROs, Injunctions, and Seizure Orders

If someone is counterfeiting your trademark, act quickly and speak with a trademark attorney. Together you can ask a court for a temporary restraining order (TRO) or a preliminary injunction, which puts a hold on the counterfeiter’s use of your mark while you prepare the lawsuit. A court can also grant an ex parte seizure order, without first notifying the counterfeiter, covering the counterfeit goods, the means of making the marks, and the sales records (15 U.S.C. § 1116(d)).

Prevent Future Knock-Offs

The best way to fight knock-offs is to develop a strong brand reputation and legal protective filings early on. This way you are being proactive and not reactive.

If you discover a knock-off, you already have the documentation in place to have them taken down. This will lessen the damage to your sales as you can act swiftly.

Contact us today if you need help protecting your product from knock offs.