So the LA Times did a whole article that chronicled the dealings of Chris Johnson. Chris Johnson is a detective who goes around trying to find denim knockoffs for his premium denim brand clients so that they can start lawsuits with the people who sell such knockoffs. Its an interesting article that definitely highlights the reasons that the United States needs to start protecting fashion intellectual property rights.According to the article, "Customs officials seized $197 million worth of fakes in 2007, up 27% from the previous year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Last year, customs officials seized $18 million worth of counterfeit apparel, which includes denim, from China alone -- up 29% from the previous year. Those numbers represent only a small slice of the counterfeit goods traded every day: According to the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition, the global trade in illegitimate goods has increased from $5.5 billion a year in 1982 to $600 billion today."
These are numbers serve as a reminder that this is a growing black market economy that ultimately ends up hurting the U.S. economy. It also hurts the consumer. If a consumer purchases a knockoff, the consumer ends up buying an inferior product that is not the same as the original. It also serves as trademark dilution because other consumers will mistakenly assume that the knockoff is simply an inferior product put forth by the original company.
The numbers also illustrate that the knockoffs are arriving from countries like China who is experiencing a legitimate economic boom in its own right. However, this boom is also being bolstered by illegal activity that the U.S. government has not really attempted to regulate too heavily until now. Regulation of such activity would serve to bolster local economy. I know it seems like an isolationist attitude, but I simply propose that we prevent Chinese counterfeits from swallowing potential sales for U.S. denim companies. A majority of premium denim are manufactured from California, in particular Los Angeles. If the government prevents these bootleggers from delving into the economic pie of denim consumption, then those consumer dollars would be going back to domestic companies.
If you want to check out the article for yourself, here is the link:
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