LV suit vs. Shanghai store is postponed

Luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton Malletier's lawsuit against a Shanghai store for allegedly selling counterfeit goods was postponed by a court early last month, according to www.ipr.gov.cn.

Judges of the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court said the hearing was postponed because the lawyers for the defendants did not appear. The date for another hearing has yet to be set.

The official website run by the Ministry of Commerce said that the store, registered as Shanghai Zhongwen Trade Co Ltd and located in a small lane on Shaanxi Road S, caught Louis Vuitton's eye when Canadian singer Celine Dion shopped there on April 10, 2008, picking up about 50 counterfeit products, including bogus LV goods, before her concert in the city, according to the plaintiff.

Louis Vuitton sued the store's owners, a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin, and his wife Wu Beiwen, who is from Shanghai. The plaintiff is seeking 1 million yuan in damages.

The plaintiff claimed that on Aug 2, 2008, police took a number of counterfeit goods from hidden cabinets in the store, including 55 counterfeit items with the LV trademark and 237 counterfeit items branded Chanel, Gucci and Rolex. The total amount the shop was charging for the goods was 1.63 million yuan.

After they were arrested, the couple allegedly told police they began selling fake luxury goods in 2000. They were fined by the local market watchdog in December 2002 and June 2004 for selling counterfeit goods but weren't arrested because their business revenue was below 50,000 yuan, the minimum amount for counterfeit traders to be sent to prison.

"The defendants did not have any regrets after they were fined, but sold even more counterfeits," the plaintiff states. "This is evidence that they deliberately misused the Louis Vuitton trademark."

Eight years of sales of counterfeit goods have caused a huge loss to Louis Vuitton but brought a great deal of profit to the defendants, according to the plaintiff. The couple bought at least four properties in downtown Jing'an District, valued at more than 20 million yuan, the plaintiff claims.

In 2004, Louis Vuitton fakes accounted for 18 percent of counterfeit accessories seized in the European Union. The brand has been a target of counterfeit since its establishment, due to the goods' prestigious stature.

Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton, or sometimes shortened to LV, is a French luxury fashion and leather goods company. Founded in 1854, one of its main divisions is headquartered in Paris, France. Known especially for bags and trunks, the company collaborates with prominent figures for marketing and design (most notably supermodel Gisele Bndchen and fashion designer Marc Jacobs).

LV is also one of the oldest fashion houses in the world. It sells its products strictly through its own retail stores, small boutiques in high-end department stores, and online (as an effort against counterfeiting). It primarily competes with Versace, Gucci, Chanel, Armani, Prada and similar luxury brands.

LV takes a serious view of all counterfeiting, employing a team of lawyers and special investigation agencies, actively pursuing offenders through courts worldwide, and allocating about half of its budget of communications to counteract piracy of its goods.

In a further effort, the company closely controls the distribution of its products. Today, Vuitton products are primarily available at authentic Louis Vuitton boutiques, with a small number of exceptions. These boutiques are commonly found in upscale shopping districts or, less commonly, inside ultra high-end department stores. The boutiques within department stores operate independently from the department stores and have their own LV managers and employees.