LV Bought Fake Bags With A Notary And Claimed High Profile. Suspected Of Fishing For Evidence

The international luxury giant Louis Vuitton Maletti (hereinafter referred to as LV Company) has initiated rights protection actions in many cities in China since last year due to trademark infringement. Now the company has burned the flames of rights protection to Nanjing.

According to the reporter, since last month, LV Company has successively sued Nanjing Laidi Market and Huanbei Market for trademark infringement. Yesterday, LV Company targeted Nanjing Xinjiekou Fashion again Shopping Street Claim against the dealer.

Nanjing Taotaoxiang, as the defendant, said that they doubted LV Company's motivation to safeguard its rights. LV Company's two purchases of shops were both luring and fishing.

A person in charge of a domestic trademark association said that the dealers selling fake LV bags did have infringement, but the LV company's right protection behavior was suspected of speculation.

　　 Take a notary to buy a fake bag for evidence

In the court, LV Company said that on October 30 last year, the employees of the company with notaries bought a fake LV registered trademark women's bag at the booth of Miss Wang, a merchant in Taotao Lane, Nanjing, at a price of 800 yuan. On April 11 this year, LV Company again purchased a LV high imitation men's satchel for 350 yuan.

LV also said that after they bought the fake package on October 30 last year, they sent an ultimatum to the management of Taotao Lane in the form of a warning letter to stop the infringement within 7 working days. However, in April this year, we bought LV fake bags again, so the company decided to take Miss Wang, the dealer, and the manager of Taotao Lane to court. The dealer Miss Wang is the first defendant, and the management party of Taotao Lane is the second defendant, claiming 500000 yuan and 48000 yuan of rights protection costs, and the two defendants bear all litigation costs in this case.

"We have issued a warning before, but Taotaoxiang, as the manager, did not stop the infringement in a timely and effective manner, and did not take active measures to avoid the recurrence of infringement, so we should bear joint and several liability." The lawyer representing LV said in the court.

　　 The defendant questioned LV's "fishing" evidence collection

As for the statement of LV Company, the dealer Miss Wang said in the court that after LV Company came to the store for the first time to buy the relevant infringing goods, she had changed her business to a nail salon. The reason why the men's satchels were sold on April 11 this year was that someone specifically asked her to sell the only inventory before, and there was no long-term infringement.

In addition, Miss Wang said in an interview that the LV company paid 800 yuan to buy a high imitation LV bag from her, and the purchase price was 600 yuan. One bag earned 200 yuan, and the second man's bag earned only 50 yuan. "Let me pay 500000 yuan, isn't it a joke? I can't afford to pay."

According to Miss Wang, her high imitation LV bags are mainly ordered online, and some are purchased from a merchant in Guangzhou

As the other defendant in the case, the management of Taotao Lane said in an interview that although they are the management of Taotao Lane, the law does not clearly stipulate their obligation to supervise merchants to sell fake goods, and most of the merchants are wholesale. From the selling price, buyers should be very clear that they are high imitation, and the real goods will not be so cheap.

In court, the management of Taotao Lane also said that since receiving the warning letter from LV Company, they had notified the relevant shops, and their obligation was to notify the relevant shops, "We are not law enforcers, and we have no right to investigate the fake sales of shops, so we have no responsibility. On the contrary, LV company's two purchases of fake goods in shops are fishing for evidence, so LV also has relevant responsibilities."

　　 LV claims or high profile rights protection

Both parties fought head to head in the court and insisted on their own reasons. However, in the court mediation stage, LV Company reduced the claim of 500000 yuan to 50000 yuan, but requested the Taotao Lane market management party to declare and acknowledge the management obligations and responsibilities.

Although LV Company significantly reduced the amount of compensation, the merchant Miss Wang still said that she could not accept it. "I can't afford to pay, and I can only accept 5000 yuan of compensation at most."

Taotaoxiang, as the management party, also said it was unacceptable. They believed that the management party had fulfilled its management obligations and reminded the merchants in time after receiving the warning from LV Company, so they did not recognize the requirements of LV Company.

From the claim of 500000 yuan to the final 50000 yuan, LV Company has made such a big change that it is inevitable to consider what the purpose of LV Company's rights protection is. In this regard, the head of a domestic trademark association told the reporter that according to the trademark law, the merchants selling high imitation LV bags did infringe the LV trademark, but LV companies searched for and bought counterfeit LV bags, which was suspected of fishing for evidence, "It can be seen that LV Company actually wants to show its strong brand awareness through high-profile rights protection. This move of LV is more likely to be a warning to merchants selling highly imitated LV products."

As for the way of LV company's rights protection, a senior lawyer in Jiangsu Province told reporters that at present there is a way to earn money by actively buying fake goods. Generally, companies holding trademark rights package the company's rights protection business to law firms, and then lawyers look around for businesses selling counterfeit trademark products, and ask notarization companies to sue for high compensation, "From the current situation, all the steps of LV Company are very similar to this way."