Alexander Wang filed a lawsuit against 45 operators of around 500 illegal websites that had sold counterfeits of the business’s luxury products online. The court decided in favour of the complainant and awarded the damaged fashion designer some 90 million US dollars (approx. 80 million euro).
This is, however, above all a symbolic victory. As so often in such cases, it is nearly impossible to locate the operators of the illegal websites and hold them to account. Alexander Wang nonetheless wants to continue taking measures against counterfeiters.
„The creativity and originality of our designs are the foundation upon which the company is based,“ explained the Chief Principle Officer of the fashion brand, Dennis Wang, to WWD. „Protecting our brand requires maintaining constant vigilance on a global scale as well as taking proactive measures such as sending cease and desist orders directly to domestic and foreign counterfeiters as well as contacting website servers that host counterfeit sites,“ continued Wang.
Other luxury goods manufacturers are also increasingly turning to legal action and question the effectivity of raids and confiscations in the fight against piracy. In China, the introduction of special intellectual property courts comes just at the right time for manufacturers (cf. our German-language report).
“It’s pretty easy to live with at least some fakes if they don’t take much market share,“ said Harley Lewin, attorney for Alexander Wang. “But when the legitimate retail market gets increasingly tight and tough, the impetus to crack down (on fakes) becomes just that much more urgent,” continued Lewin. After years of unsuccessful measures, the fashion label has therefore chosen to combat the increasing counterfeits more aggressively.
