Raids Reveal Counterfeit Goods Intended For Holiday Sales

The LA Times reports that the Los Angeles Police Department seized over $4 million dollars worth of counterfeit goods. Some of the counterfeit goods seized were music CDs, DVDs of movies currently in theaters such as Tron, and fashion counterfeit goods. The raids were done in conjunction with LA's antipiract task force as well as investigators from private industries.

Why should holiday shoppers care? According to City Controller Wendy Greuel, People who make counterfeit goods are stealing, plain and simple. This should serve as a wake-up call, not only to criminals that produce and sell these goods, but to all holiday shoppers out there."

Holiday shoppers looking for a bargain should beware that buying counterfeit goods actually fuel dangerous activities in their own communities. For example, buying counterfeit goods can help fund criminal gangs. It also costs local businesses close to $5.2 billion in lost revenue and $4.4 billion in lost wages each year.

Here are some tips that can help you avoid unwittingly buying a knockoff:

• Buy from well known retailers or local retailers listed on a brand's website.
  
• Be wary of "deals" that require purchases with cash.
  
• Look at the item in question for any loose stitching or shoddy workmanship.

Have a happy and safe holiday season!

Louis Vuitton's Fight Against Google Means Protected Keywords

It seems like the Europeans take Google Adwords very seriously. Louis Vuitton's fight against Google has taken it to the European Justice Court in Luxembourg; which has ruled that the search engine giant Google will have to keep track of the use of trademarked keywords that link back to advertisements on its site.

While the court held that Google did not violate the trademark law when it sold protected keywords, it did say that websites are liable for any trademark violations in the ads if they were aware of it, or had control over the data. This may place an undue burden on Google to monitor its ads.

This ruling in favor of a company defending its trademark in the realm of ad keywords is the first of its kind. Louis Vuitton, which is a part of the luxury company LMVH, will most likely use this ruling in order to battle other websites such as EBay. In fact, Mr. Pierre Gode, vice-president of Paris-based LVMH is quoted by BusinessWeek as saying: LVMH will use the ruling “to show that online referencing services such as Google and EBay do play an active and not a passive role.”

What was Google's response to this decision? According to the Los Angeles Times, the search engine giant Google released the following statement: "This long-awaited decision will be welcomed by the business community as well as by consumers. It confirms and emphasizes the critical role played by trademarks in a dynamic economy to protect innovation and the investments carried out by businesses, and will avoid confusion on behalf of consumers as to the quality of the products and services they are buying."

Do you think that the U.S. courts would rule like this? Hmmm something to think about when you are trolling the internet for that special Louis Vuitton Speedy.

Filene's Store Gets Told to Eff Off Because of Fendi

Does anyone remember how Samantha from Sex and the City buys a fake Fendi bag? It was interesting because the term "fake Fendi" was then used to describe anything that was a sham. This was because of Charlotte crying that her marriage was a "fake Fendi".

Here is a clip in case you forgot about this famous scene in Sex and the City here.

Well perhaps that may have been why the Italian fashion house of Fendi asked the court for an injunction against the Filene's store known as Filene's Basement to stop selling accessories bearing Fendi's name or trademark without its permission. According to Reuters, a Manhattan federal judge has granted that injunction request this week. Fendi is seeking to clear the market out of any "fake Fendi" accessories.

Fendi recently battled the retailer Burlington Coat Factory for selling counterfeit Fendi goods. This month has been particularly litigious for fashion houses in NYC. As we wrote about earlier, Burberry sued TJ Maxx. Coach sued K-Mart and LVMH is suing Hyundai over trademark violations.

Burberry Company Wins $1.5 Million Dollar Award

The Burberry Company has been awarded a $1.5 million dollar award in statutory damages against a New York based importer and online seller Designer Imports Inc. this past Tuesday. The judge found that the company was selling counterfeit apparel and accessories.

The funny thing is that the company had gotten into legal trouble with Burberry before back in 2007 and agreed not to sell anymore counterfeit Burberry items. When the fashion house decided to investigate and purchased Burberry items from the online store, the Burberry company found that all of them were fake.

While the judgment is favorable for Burberry, it is not the $6.5 million dollars that they had originally asked for.