The stock of Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) closed at $1,100.95 gaining 13.22% in yesterday’s trading session. It has only been a few years since four fathers in California collaborated to engage in grassroots entrepreneurship. The four Californians were all dads and they faced similar challenges washing their infant children. They resolved to make the experience better.
The plan was to come up with a specialized pillow to hold their babies in place when inserted into a tub or sink. They decided to name it Blooming Bath. The inventors proceeded to patent the product. They trademarked it and passed it through all the safety tests and it finally made its way to the market. Within a short duration, major design awards and sales began rolling in.
In an interview, one of the four dads outlined that it felt great taking a problem and solving it. He added that it was even better if one took the problem and solved it for a large number of people.
As could have been expected, Chinese counterfeiters pulled onto the scene to take advantage of the Blooming Bath. They reproduced it and went ahead to sell it on Amazon and eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY).
The wife of one of the creators of the Blooming Bath, Tiffany Pond, opined, “Unfortunately, the everyday workload of building and running a new business had us overlooking the very large problem of counterfeiters. These [counterfeits] have popped up by a half dozen different names by thousands of sellers.”
She claimed that the counterfeiters took advantage of their photos, trademarks and designs to market their items. According to her, they had a store on Amazon and it was a matter of great concern to them that the counterfeits attached themselves to their page. That was a violation of their intellectual property rights. The creators of Blooming Bath are at the moment seeing their earnings slip and forces beyond their control are slowly dismantling their reputation.