Showing posts with label Gucci. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gucci. Show all posts

Friday, March 04, 2011

The lizard's weekly China news roundup

IP Komodo hears righteous indignation expressed by bosses at Beijing's famous Silk Market on Wednesday at a United States trade report that accuses the mall of being "notorious" for fake goods. A Ms Hu stated to the press “I don't care about what any other media is saying about (the Silk Market). We're doing our best to fight against fake goods." 80 percent of Silk Market patrons are tourists. "The guilt for fake goods is shared between the buyer and the seller," she added. During a crackdown in October 2009, authorities found copies of Gucci, Coach and Adidas ready available and the raid led to the arrest of the mall's then-manager Wang Zili, who was charged with allowing the sale of fake goods and taking bribes. IP Komodo would like to hear from anyone who has visited the market in 2011.

Meanwhile in Guangzhou the sale of counterfeit products thrives: China-Africa Commercial Plaza has been required to close after authorities investigated and seized more than 7,600 products, including watches, garments, bags, sneakers, perfumes, cell phones, notebook computers and small household appliances - fake brand names included Rolex, Rado, Citizen, Swatch, LV, Gucci, Hugo Boss, Dior, Polo, Nokia, Sony, Burberry and Apple. Investigators looked into the sales of the counterfeit products on Feb 20 and 21. Fourteen stores in the plaza were believed to have infringed IPRs.

China's food and drug watchdog Tuesday vowed a "ruthless" crackdown on the production and sales of substandard health foods and cosmetics this year. Bian Zhenjia, deputy director of the State Food and Drug Administration said at a national conference that despite stepped-up supervision on the sector last year, the country's health food and cosmetics markets still faced many quality problems. IP Komodo notes a similar problem in his home in Indonesia where echoing the problem in China a couple of years back, a tainted milk scandal has Indonesian consumers panicking over food safety.

WIPO will be delighted at this: Chinese lawmakers on Wednesday began reviewing a revised draft law on the country's intangible cultural heritage (or to give it an acronym ICH). The draft law was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, for its third reading. This is the first attempt by China to enact a law that safeguards heritage of historical, literary, artistic or scientific value. IP Komodo senses endless seminar opportunities.

Guest post by IP Komodo Dragon
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Sweet Irony: Is IP Dragon Liable For Hosting IPR Infringing AdWords?

Law is often walking a few steps behind the developments in society. I propose the term "law lag", whereby I apply the "cultural lag" concept developed by Thorstein Veblen to law. Of course intellectual property and cyberlaw are not immune for this. One important question that should be answered is to what degree are internet service providers liable for content that infringes intellectual property rights on their site. In Europe there have been cases of Louis Vuitton; Gucci; and Chanel against eBay. And of course in China there were the Baidu and Yahoo! China cases (both companies were sued by music companies at different times with different outcomes), see here.

Another category of cases that is of interest is about Adwords. September 22, 2009, the Advocat-General of the European Court of Justice gave his advice for a pre-judicial decision about whether a Google adwords (for example where Louis Vuitton products are promoted by other companies than authorised by Louis Vuitton or even selling fake Louis Vuitton products) can infringe Louis Vuitton's trademark, that was requested by the French Cour de cassation. In short the advice included: the links in AdWords used do not equal to trademarks (those could be infringed on the sites to which they lead), the AdWords do not prejudice the functions of the brand, guaranteeing quality of the goods or the communication- or the promotional function. Contributory infringement is not part of the legislation in most EU countries. However, if the trademark holder finds that the AdWords link to IPR infringing websites and requests Google to remove these links, Google will be held liable and the trademark holder can get damages. Google was not exempt from liability for hosting, because it is not a neutral information instrument, as is requested by article 14 EC directive 2000/31.
Why I am writing this, you might aks, since IP Dragon is about IPR in China and not EU law?

Well although most of the IPR infringing products, that are key in all of these cases, originate from China, I got the following email (September 24, 2009) that concerned yours truly:

"Dear Mr. Friedmann,
I am a regular reader of your blog, and I enjoy your articles about IP in China. That being said, I noticed today a peculiar Google Ad on your page: « Louis.V. Handbags 50% Off ».Intrigued, and you may guess why, I followed the link :
http://www.handbagstime.com/?gclid=CMqR2oDQiZ0CFZQA4wodBG8J3A hum…. A quick look at the « contact us » page : http://www.yeslvgifts.com/contact_us.html It seems to confirm what I thought…What do you think ?
Cheers
Philippe"

This could happen, since IP Dragon writes frequently about fake, counterfeit and IPR infringing products and makes use of Google AdSense (which is the mirror of AdWords), which adapts its content to the subjects and some AdWord users choose these categories to promote their maybe dubious goods. If I would not block these AdWords after I was warned, in principle I would end up being liable. What do you think? Thanks, Philippe, for pointing me out the links.
Photo: Danny Friedmann
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Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Harvest of Counterfeit Louis Vuitton and Gucci in 15 Minutes at Mong Kok Station






I was standing less than 15 minutes at the MTR station of Mong Kok, the most bustling and dense populated part of Kowloon, the peninsula of Hong Kong. I saw 5 ladies with a bag that could be counterfeit. Some were a bit shocked that I did not want to make a picture of them, but of their bags. All told me they did not buy their bag in the official Louis Vuitton or Gucci shop, and each bag costed them less than 300 HK dollar (30 euro). Conclusion: all were fakes.
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Thursday, June 14, 2007

3 of Baker McKenzie's Cases Elected By Supreme People's Court As 2006 Top 10 IPR Cases

Three of the ' Top ten cases' in 2006 elected by the Supreme People's Court concerns cases won by Baker & McKenzie:
  • Sony Corporation versus Guangzhou Top Power Electronics Co., Ltd.;
  • Starbucks versus Shanghai Xinbake Coffee Shop Ltd;
  • Prada, Chanel, Gucci, Burberry and Louis Vuitton versus Beijing Xiushui Haosen Clothing Market.

IP Dragon congratulates Mr. Joseph Simone and his colleages at Baker & McKenzie with their victories.

Read more about these cases on the site of Baker & McKenzie here. The China Daily mentions these cases were foreign companies won to assert that "everone's equal on IPR", read here.

UPDATE: Top Tens also popular with SAIC and GAC

Not only the Supreme People's Court has brought together a top ten of IPR cases, so did the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC): "one case involved two Beijing companies that fraudulently took application fees from firms wanting to be considered as the "most valuable brand names" by the organizing committee of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Their scam has been listed among the top 10 "typical IPR violation cases" in 2006." Read the Xinhua article via People's Daily Online here.

The 'Top Ten Cases of IPR Protection by General Administration of Customs (GAC)' of 2006 were:

  1. Huangpu Customs unearthed counterfeit old cell phones of Motorola and Philips;
  2. Xiamen Customs investigated a large number of counterfeit LINING clothes;
  3. Shenzhen Customs uncovered counterfeit "Marlboro" cigarettes;
  4. Beijing Customs found out fake "Pfizer" drugs in airport clearance;
  5. Changsha Customs investigated batteries counterfeiting the trademark "DURATA";
  6. Qingdao Customs captured fake "SHTEX" (P/C) Polyester/Cotton dyeing fabric for export;
  7. Shanghai Customs confiscated several continual exports of fake "DIAMOND" inner tubes for bicycle;
  8. Hangzhou Customs cracked down on polo shirts infringing the trademark "FIFA";
  9. Ningbo Customs captured fake "TIGER HEAD" dry cells;
  10. Tianjin Customs seized 55,000 counterfeit goods.

Read more about it here.

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