Alexander Wang has $90 million victory in fight against counterfeits and is paving the way for others

According to Yahoo! Style, the New York designer recently sued 459 websites that had been infringing on his trademark and selling counterfeit versions of his goods in an attempt to convince customers that they were genuine.

The sites infringing on the brand included domain names such as cheapalexanderwangbags.com and alexanderwangshoesale.com who had been trying to boost their sales by using the fashion designer’s name without his permission.

Although the judge ruled in his favour and granted him $90 million worth of damages there is no guarantee that he will actually receive this money since none of the defendants presented themselves at court and may have been using fake names to establish their websites.

However, in this case it is the action that the fashion brand has taken to enforce their trademark rights rather than the lack of compensation that stands out.

According to WWD, on the success of the case Dennis Wang, chief principal officer for the company stated “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. The creativity and originality of our designs are the foundation upon which the company is based.”

Although there have been some recent success stories of brands triumphing over counterfeit sellers, such as the Nike Air Max and BMW cases, counterfeiting is still a significant issue in the global market.

According to a report filed by the EU IP Office  the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development the total estimated value of the global counterfeit trade is $461 billion.

Furthermore, Birkenstock’s have recently chosen to leave the Amazon marketplace after being unsatisfied with the way that Amazon has been dealing with counterfeiters and unauthorised sellers on their site.

Counterfeiting is generally only seen to be a significant problem in the Fashion industry since it is fashion cases in that are most frequently reported in the press. However, counterfeiting can  occur in any industry and therefore companies must be vigilant in protecting and policing their brands.

The best way to protect your company’s reputation, brand value and profits in today’s global marketplace is by registering a trademark and gaining trademark enforcement rights. However, just having the trademark is not enough. Like Alexander Wang you would also need to police your market for potential infringements and then be prepared to act on them when they do arise.

For advice and more information on searching, acquiring, registering and enforcing Trademarks please visit our website, http://www.lipex.com.