There are over a thousand models of soles that Atlanta – Footwear Components has registered with the Office of Harmonization in the Internal Market, a process with high costs, but essential, given that “innovation in materials, processes and design costs a lot of money,” says Joana Meireles.
A constant target for copies, the company regrets above all the difference in the way the authorities in Portugal and Spain act, which has already led it to consider the possibility of transferring the factory across the border. “A year and a half ago we made a complaint to ASAE that there were shoes with soles that were copies of ours on sale in a national chain. To this day not a single pair has been seized. At the same time, we made a complaint in Spain, regarding two copied soles, and the police there seized 51,000 pairs of shoes,” he explains and adds: “Either the authorities act immediately, or the practical effect is null.”