Some government agency recently discovered a bunch of shipping cargo containers full of counterfeit sports shoes. They seized them, and were openly praising themselves about what a triumph this was. "Consumers would hardly be able to tell them from the real thing." Then they shifted view from the spokesperson over to a big wood chipper, where they were shredding all of the shoes, and went on to describe how they were going straight into a landfill.
What?
In this season, where in the northern hemisphere every group and person out there is begging for contributions to charities and help for the needy and homeless, they take perfectly good shoes and destroy them.
Now, I understand that the government cannot just turn around and sell or give away shoes that blatantly violate patents and trademarks. Even though the company itself has to sue and get judicial approval before anyone is chastised for such violations, it could hurt the government. But couldn't they have come up with a better solution?
To me, the obvious thing to do is: remove all logos, decals, or identifying marks. Take a waterproof marker and write "THIS IS A FAKE" on the outside of the shoe. Then dump off boxes of them at homeless shelters and charities. To save money, the government could even force the recipients to do that: "here, deface these three shoes, then you can take a pair".
Does this hurt the major shoe manufacturers? No. Generally, the poor, destitute, and/or homeless are not going to be frequent shoppers at Nike World. Dropping $120 on a single pair of shoes is not something you do when you do not have enough money to eat. If anything, it hurts the fraudulent sellers who wander the waterfront offering these knock-off shoes for $10: why pay when you can get a pair for free? So everyone wins. Well, everyone but the counterfeiters.
But no. Instead, when someone breaks trademark laws, probably uses questionable labour sources, and sneaks goods into the country, we bravely respond by destroying valuable commodities and raping the environment by shoving the remains into landfills. Go team!