Barbour buys search ads to fight counterfeit goods

Summary: Barbour the British clothing manufacturer selling luxury goods including the iconic waxed jacket has taken steps to fight the flow of fake goods appearing at the top of search results.

Barbour the British clothing manufacturer selling luxury goods including the iconic waxed jacket has taken steps to fight the flow of fake goods appearing at the top of search results.

It has taken out paid adverts in Google. If you search for Fake Barbour, the top link directs you to the Barbour Official Sellers Site. The headline reads:

Don’t Get Caught Buying Fakes, See Our free Fake Guide.

The next link points to Barbours Counterfeit Education site with a list of fake Barbour sites and information how to tell the difference between a real Barbour and a fake item.

The brand which was founded in the UK in 1894 sells a range of jackets coats, sweaters and other clothing. The wax jackets last for many years — I’ve had mine for almost 20 years now and it is still waterproof. I’m in good company too. The Queen wears Barbour.

Brand innovation

“Protecting our customers and our brand is of paramount importance to us,” says Steve Buck, managing director at Barbour. “We always advise customers to buy only from approved Barbour stockists and we believe that this approach will really help get the message across.”

Barbour is leading the way with this initiative. Searches for other luxury brands such as Gucci, Versace, Ugg and Louis Vuitton show various results. Links include information how to spot a fake item but there are no links pointing to the brand web site.

It would be good to see brands that are also plagued with fake items flooding the market to adopt a similar approach. You wouldn’t want your fake boots to be made with something that has been skinned alive would you?

With cheap fake goods, you often get what you pay for…

For luxury authentic goods visit http://www.luxuryonlinestore.net

thanks Eileen Brown

The Stop Online Piracy Act, What is SOPA and how does it work?

Net founders fight piracy law with 'censorship' claim

The founders of Google, Twitter and eBay have signed a strongly worded letter criticising controversial US legislation ahead of a debate in Congress.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) aims to slash the amount of pirated content on the internet.

But signatories including Google co-founder Sergey Brin claim it amounts to China-style censorship.

                                Film studios are stepping up efforts to combat piracy

The bill has the backing of Hollywood and the music industry.

Blocking access

Sopa was introduced by Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, who said the legislation was designed to "stop the flow of revenue to rogue websites... that profit from selling pirated goods without any legal consequences".

It would give content owners and the US government the power to request court orders to shut down websites associated with piracy.

Sopa aims to stop online ad networks and payment processors from doing business with foreign websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.

It could stop search engines from linking to the allegedly infringing sites. Domain name registrars could be forced to take down the websites, and internet service providers could be forced to block access to the sites accused of infringing.

A similar law, the Protect IP Act, is making its way through the US Senate.

Critics argue that the proposals are too broad and could lead to the closure of a range of sites.

'Due process'

The latest letter, published in several US newspapers including the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and the New York Times, reads: "We've all had the good fortune to found internet companies and non-profits in a regulatory climate that promotes entrepreneurship, innovation, the creation of content and free expression online.

"However we're worried that the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act - which started out as well-meaning efforts to control piracy online - will undermine that framework."

The letter said that the legislation would require web services to monitor what users link to or upload.

The bill would also "deny website owners the right to due process" and "give the US government the power to censor the web using techniques similar to those used by China, Malaysia and Iran", the letter goes on.

"We urge Congress to think hard before changing the regulation that underpins the internet... Let's not deny the next generation of entrepreneurs and founders the same opportunities that we all had."

The letter was signed by Twitter co-founders Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams; Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake; Yahoo! co-founders David Filo and Jerry Yang; LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman; YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley; PayPal co-founder Elon Musk; Craigslist founder Craig Newmark; eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

Another appeal, signed by 83 key internet engineers including father of the internet Vint Cerf, has also been sent to Congress.

"We cannot have a free and open internet unless its naming and routing systems sit above the political concerns and objectives of any one government or industry," it reads.

"Censorship of internet infrastructure will inevitably cause network errors and security problems. This is true in China, Iran and other countries that censor the network today; it will be just as true of American censorship."

UK copyright

A group of US politicians is proposing an alternative to Sopa that would see funding cut off to foreign websites accused of copyright infringements in a similar way to how the US ended Wikileaks' commercial operation.

Yorkshire Police counterfeit CD/DVD's

They argue that the International Trade Commission (ITC) should take charge of combating piracy, instead of judges. The ITC would be tasked with reviewing claims of online infringement against foreign website owners, ordering them cut off from funding if the claims prove true.

While the US moves to tighten its copyright laws, the UK is aiming to relax its own.

The Intellectual Property Office has launched a consultation exercise intended, among other things, to allow the ripping of CDs to digital music players.

It follows recommendations from Professor Ian Hargreaves in his review of intellectual property.

Other plans include allowing data mining of scientific research for non-commercial use and a licensing scheme to make it easier for digital services to gain access to copyrighted works. It also proposes relaxing copyright rules around "parody" videos which are increasingly popular on YouTube.

The move was welcomed by the British Library and watchdog Consumer Focus, but The Publishers' Association said it was concerned that the relaxation could make intellectual property theft easier.

via BBC_UK & http://www.luxuryonlinestore.net

Louis Vuitton Sues San Antonio Flea Market

Louis Vuitton HQ

Opening arguments began this week in a lawsuit filed by luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton against San Antonio’s Eisenhauer flea market. The French company says the flea market allowed vendors to sell counterfeit products and is seeking $18 million.

Louis Vuitton’s lawyer said in opening arguments that the company sent representatives to the Eisenhauer Market and found as many as 15 vendors selling fake Louis Vuitton products, the San Antonio Express-News reports.

A lawyer for the market said its on-site manager was not trained to recognized counterfeit items.

A statement issued by Louis Vuitton last year and posted on San Antonio NBC affiliate WOAI’s website says the company has been fighting counterfeiting around the world for years.

The Eisenhauer flea market in San Antonio

Photo by Jon Mallard http://www.flickr.com/photos/mallard10/

“Thanks to this fully-dedicated team of lawyers and former law enforcement professionals based in Paris with regional offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Milan, Dubai, New York and Buenos Aires, thousands of anti-counterfeiting raids are performed each year,” the company says in the statement.

The lawsuit was originally filed in February 2011. A commenter on the blog Strange in San Antonio said he had purchased a fake bag from the market, and the quality was questionable.

“The stitching started to let go after a few months and it ended up looking pretty ratty after a year,” Keith Allen K posted.

Louis Vuitton is also embroiled in a legal dispute with Warner Brothers over the appearance of fake handbags in the movie Hangover Part II, see Delortae Agency's according MiMi's Blog.

And just last week in Orlando, police arrested a couple and accused them of selling counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags at a flea market, along with other fake designer brands, the Orlando Sentinel reported. 

via KutNew & http://www.luxuyonlinestore.net

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Derek Lam accuses Ivanka Trump of copying shoe design

Derek Lam's Ayami sandal (left) and Ivanka Trump's Cadie sandal (right).

Fashion designer Derek Lam is taking legal action against Ivanka Trump, claiming a sandal that's part of her footwear line is a copy of one of his designs.

WWD reports that Lam's legal team sent a cease-and-desist order to Trump's shoe company, Ivanka Trump Footwear, and its distributor, Marc Fisher Footwear, demanding that the company pull the shoe from stores within seven days.


Remember, when the issue first raised it's head Derek Lam's legal team sent Ivanka Trump a cease-and-desist letter yesterday regarding her Cadie wedge sandals, which look exactly like his Ayami wedge sandals (their retail prices: $150 and $780, respectively). Lam's lawyers have given Trump's company, Ivanka Trump Footwear, and its licensee Marc Fisher Footwear, seven days to pull the shoes from shelves.

WWD reports:

“We have seen very similar copies before but we have never seen a shoe that perfectly copied,” said Jan-Hendrik Schlottmann, chief executive officer of Derek Lam. “It’s such an investment to make a shoe … we had to protest this.”

Schlottmann said one of his shoe designers, who was shopping on bloomingdales.com, saw Trump’s wedge and alerted him immediately.

“I actually ordered them, but I haven’t received them yet,” he said, noting that the sandal is nowhere to be found on Trump’s Web site. “I’m sure Ms. Trump doesn’t know her wedge is copy because it’s through a license.”

Meanwhile, Lam's lawyers are combing through sales records of Trump's Cadie wedge, which implies that they might sue for damages. Well, here we are the New Year and the drama continues. Marc Fisher Footwear, the licensing company behind Ivanka Trump's shoe line, has refused to cooperate with Derek Lam's cease-and-desist letter regarding a look-alike sandal. Lam CEO Jan-Hendrik Schlottmann accused Trump's company of "blantantly" copying their Ayami wedge shoe on Wednesday, and Lam's lawyers demanded that all of Trump's Cadie wedges be pulled from shelves within seven days. But yesterday, Marc Fisher Footwear announced that they have no intention of meeting these demands.

WWD reports:

“The Lam wedge sandals are of a popular design type that has been used by numerous manufacturers for many decades. There is nothing iconic about the appearance of the Lam sandal,” a representative from Marc Fisher told WWD. “The Ivanka Trump sandals prominently display the Ivanka Trump name, and there can be no confusion as to the source of the Ivanka Trump sandals. Therefore, Marc Fisher Footwear, the licensee of the Ivanka Trump brand, strongly denies Lam’s claims.”

Ivanka Trump attends the premiere of "The Way" on Oct. 5, 2011, in New York.

 (Credit: Getty)

Lam claims that Trump's Cadie wedge sandals, which retail for $150, are too similar to his Ayami wedge sandals, which sell for $780, according to the report. (You can see the shoes side-by-side here.)

Derek Lam CEO Jan-Hendrik Schlottmann told WWD that one of the company's shoe designers spotted Trump's sandals while shopping on Bloomingdales.com.

"We have seen very similar copies before but we have never seen a shoe that perfectly copied," he said. "It's such an investment to make a shoe ... we had to protest this."

Marc Fisher Footwear denied the claims on Thursday.

"The Lam wedge sandals are of a popular design type that has been used by numerous manufacturers for many decades," the company said in a statement, obtained by People magazine. "There is nothing iconic about the appearance of the Lam sandal."

Trump, who stars alongside her father, Donald Trump, on "The Celebrity Apprentice," also designs eponymous lines of jewelry and handbags.

Unseemly conflicts like this one are usually settled quietly between the respective parties, so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming weeks. 

Wonder who's handbags will be "similar" in design?

Thanks WWD & NYC Mag

Couple charged with selling millions in fake Coach, Louis Vuitton purses

Undercover detectives surveilled Xiaolin Ma and Xiao Qu's flea market business for weeks before finding the trove of phoney merchandise.

Xiao Fang Qu, 44, and Xiaolin Ma, 47, are accused of running a mulit-million dollar counterfeit merchandise business out of a Pine Hills flea market, police said. (Orlando Police, Orlando Police /

By Arelis R. Hernández, Orlando Sentinel

3:27 p.m. EST, January 6, 2012

An Orlando couple is accused of running a multi-million dollar counterfeit merchandise business that sold thousands of phony brand-name purses, wallets and other items out of a Pine Hills flea market, police said.

Xiaolin Ma and Xiao Fang Qu, both of Windermere, were arrested Thursday at their store, the Lucky Gifts shop, located at the run-down Magic Mall outlet in the 5100 block of West Colonial Drive.

They were charged with selling $20,000 or more of counterfeit goods and selling 1,000 or more counterfeit items, according to an Orlando police charging affidavit.

Detectives first came across the fake products when they confronted two merchants that were selling the fake purses and handbags in a strip mall parking lot on South Kirkman Road in early December, the report said.

The salespeople told investigators they had been buying the purses at $15 each from a woman named "Lilly" for four years and resold them for $40 on the street to supplement their income.

The informants said Lilly — later identified as Qu — and her husband "Mike" — later identified as Ma — sold the trademarked purses from the back room of a flea market building to people with whom they had relationships.

Orlando police detectives surveilled the flea market, and came across a locked cage, stacked with Reebok shoe boxes that were likely counterfeit, the report said.

They also monitored the flea market parking area — where they saw more gray bags in the hands of customers.

Detectives collaborated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who were familiar with the name "Lilly" after they intercepted a tractor trailer carrying counterfeit products on Interstate 4 that were destined for "Lilly's store," in 2008. But ICE agents never identified or located the woman.

Police obtained a search warrant and raided the business Thursday, finding several thousand counterfeit Gucci, Chanel, Dooney and Bourke, Coach and other high-end purses.

Detectives estimated the retail worth counterfeit items as between $6 and $8 million dollars, the investigative report stated.

Both Ma and Qu bonded out of the Orange County jail. They could not be reached for comment.

arehernandez@tribune.com or 407-420-5471

Vistit http://www.luxuryonlinestore.net for authentic luxury designer items

‘Operation Holiday Hoax’ Helps Feds Seize Over $4M In Counterfeit Goods In LA-Area

Watch the video for the latest information on counterfeit seizure

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LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Federal authorities say they have seized more than $4 million in phony merchandise in the Los Angeles area during this holiday season.

Investigators have stepped up their crackdown on the import and sale of counterfeit goods in an effort called Operation Holiday Hoax.

John Brooks reports

Fake designers jeans, apparel and athletic shoes involving brands like True Religion, Nike, and The North Face top the list of phony merchandise.

Several agencies, including Homeland Security Investigations of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, took part in the six-week worldwide operation.

Federal authorities say more than $4 million worth of phony merchandise was seized in the Los Angeles area alone during an international holiday season crackdown on counterfeit goods.


U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says fake designer jeans, apparel and athletic shoes involving brands such as True Religion, Nike and The North Face were seized in the LA-area during Operation Holiday Hoax.


The six-week global enforcement effort was headed by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations, with the assistance of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

http://www.luxuryonlinestore.net 

via CBS 

eBay 'may be liable' for sale of fake goods, court says

Intellectual property specialists said the verdict was a blow to eBay

Websites such as eBay may be liable for trademark infringements if they play an "active role" in promoting fake goods, the European Court of Justice has said.

The court's ruling came in response to a case brought by French cosmetics giant L'Oreal against eBay in the UK.

L'Oreal claims eBay is liable for sales on its website of counterfeit goods and "parallel imports" - L'Oreal products not intended for sale in the EU.

EBay said the court gave "some clarity" while others saw it as a "blow".

L'Oreal said it was "satisfied" with the ruling.

"This decision is in line with the position L'Oreal has taken for several years and is applicable in courts throughout the European Union," a company spokesman said.

Clarification

In May 2009, the High Court in the UK ruled that eBay was not jointly liable for the sale of any counterfeit L'Oreal products through its website, but said that the online marketplace could do more to stop trademark infringement.

The High Court asked the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to clarify the obligations of internet marketplaces under EU law.

In a statement, the ECJ said that it was for national courts to order online shopping sites to take measures to prevent trademark infringements.

But it also said that companies such as eBay were deemed to play an "active role" for instance by "optimising the presentation of the online offers for sale or promoting those offers".

"When the operator has played an 'active role' of that kind, it cannot rely on the exemption from liability which EU law confers, under certain conditions, on online service providers such as operators of internet marketplaces," the court said.

'Level playing field'

Stefan Krawczyk, senior director at eBay Europe, said: "The judgement provides some clarity on certain issues, and ensures that all brands can be traded online in Europe.

"As a marketplace, eBay provides a level playing field for all online sellers and will continue building constructive partnerships to expand the range of brands being sold on eBay."

Kirsten Gilbert, partner at Marks & Clerk Solicitors, which specialises in intellectual property, said the verdict was a blow to eBay.

"Brands have been concerned for years now that the internet has facilitated the trade of counterfeit goods," she said.

"Items which would otherwise be available only from back-street traders have become instantly available to consumers in the privacy of their own homes.

"L'Oreal and other brand owners will be hoping that online marketplaces like eBay now sit up and pay attention to the sales of counterfeit items which go through their sites."

via BBCNewsUK