According to FT.com, the Internet is the 3rd largest market for counterfeit goods behind China and Italy. Because of this trend, Google has lost its second court case in France as the Louis Vuitton group has won €100,000 for “counterfeit acts”. Because of Google’s practice of selling trademarks as keywords, they have caused quite a stir in the exclusive-brand luxury goods market.
Again, according to FT.com, “In June, Tiffany announced it was suing the online auction site eBay and claimed nearly three out of four of the Tiffany-labeled items on eBay’s site were fake.”
This means that no longer is it necessary to take those long flights to Hong Kong for badly labeled CD’s and videos. Slipping across the Mexican border for fraudulent designer leather goods is a thing of the past. You no longer have to go to the bad parts of town to buy goods out of the back of a van.
All you need to do now is to do a search on your favorite search engine and find all sorts of organic listings for whatever you fancy. And not only that, with some search engines or shopping sites you can view and buy from the paid advertisements as well.
Policing the Internet for fakes and counterfeits is no doubt a monumental task since many geographic borders with differing local laws may need to be navigated as well in the policing efforts. Its not a problem that will go away easily. But you have to admire the efforts of those trying to protect their brands and enforce some sort of international marketing justice.
Can you say e-Rolex.com?
