Burberry is the latest fashion firm to score a win against counterfeiters. The British company was recently awarded more than $100 million in damages against a network of Chinese based counterfeiters running an online racket.
The accused reportedly sold at least 22 fashion items modelled after Burberry products and bearing the label’s trademarks. Yesburberryvision.com and buyburberry are amongst the sites slammed by the lawsuit.
It seems the defendants have no answers to the charges. They failed to answer the complaint which was filed in January, and they didn’t even appear in court. Without any words of defence it was an open and shut case for the judge, who awarded Burberry Inc. $100 million, along with any money in the defendants’ PayPal accounts.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen judges promise damages held by third-party accounts in these kinds of cases. It’s been an important development as it’s notoriously difficult to get money from these overseas based online operations.
Burberry has also been awarded a permanent injunction against the offending websites. Their domain names will also be transferred to Burberry, and search engines and prominent social networks will no longer promote the sites.
If all this is sounding like déjà vu it may be because the verdict is virtually identical to the one a Manhattan judge handed down for Hermes a few weeks ago. It’s further evidence that counterfeiting won’t be tolerated by the world’s legal systems.
