Maybe not great news for consumers shopping online counterfeit products knowing that they are. However, people who do value authentic branded products and professionals who are dedicated to marketing them will be delighted to know that legal action taken by the luxury fashion brand Belstaff have achieved their fruits, managing to close hundreds of online stores selling counterfeits.
But it does not stop here. The ruling of the United States courts establishes that the luxury fashion brand must receive 37 million euros in damages.
MarkMonitor wins the battle against online counterfeiters
The news has been announced by MarkMonitor, one of the leading providers of trademark protection solutions and part of the Science and Intellectual Property division of Thomson Reuters, today announced that the luxury fashion brand Belstaff, one of its main clients, has won the battle it had open against counterfeiters selling online.
Following a civil lawsuit filed in US courts, judges have sentenced the counterfeiters to pay 37 million euros ($ 42 million) in damages. In this anti-counterfeiting reference case, an unprecedented number of infringing websites, 676 in all, have been provided as evidence to Belstaff.
This legal success has come after the company decided to implement a comprehensive program for the protection of all your intellectual property, from trademark registration to individual products. For this, it has had the external help of the specialist in online trademark protection, MarkMonitor.
The program was launched to monitor all the different markets and individual websites for the sale of counterfeit products. The search also focused on websites that use the Belstaff name in their domain name, as well as generic websites that included counterfeit Belstaff products.
In the words of Elena Mauri, head of Belstaff's legal department:
Everyone at Belstaff is delighted with the outcome of the sentencing. There are other prominent luxury brands that have taken advantage of US anti-counterfeiting laws, however, we believe that our case has set the bar even higher due to the unprecedented number of websites that have been closed in one go. once. The entire legal process lasted less than four months and none of the top 20 individual websites cited in the case is still operational today. We will certainly not hesitate to follow this legal route again in the future if necessary, and we will continue to take a zero tolerance stance for any illegal behavior. In today's predominantly digital world, an increasing number of forward-thinking luxury brands are expanding their offerings online.
The online sale of luxury fashion will continue to grow
According to the forecasts of the analyst firm McKinsey, It seems that the growing trend of buying luxury products online will continue, predicting that by 2025, e-commerce sales will represent 18% of all luxury sales worldwide.
Gavin haig, CEO of Belstaff, has commented on this:
At Belstaff, e-commerce has been a very important engine for the growth of our brand. However, we have also been aware that alongside the benefits of venturing into the online retail market, we could suffer the potential negative impact of counterfeiters. From the beginning, we decided to prevent our customers from falling prey to counterfeiters, we will do everything we can to protect our loyal customers and our brand, built with great care and effort throughout the years.
Thousands of eCommerce that sold counterfeits dismantled
Most counterfeit products they were jackets and outerwear, particularly counterfeit copies of Belstaff's best-selling leather jacket. The counterfeit copies they were designs from previous seasons that were no longer in production at Belstaff.
MarkMonitor's sophisticated technology is capable of exploring a complete network of web pages, including both indexed and non-indexed results, as well as examining fundamental criteria such as web page design and payment processes. Search results for Belstaff uncovered 3.000 counterfeit selling web pages, and the technology also identified that more than 800 of these web pages were run by an individual based in China.
Jerome sicard, MarkMonitor Regional Director for Southern Europe, said:
This decision sends a stark warning to online counterfeiters and underscores the growing importance of online brand protection. This is not the first case of its kind, however, the ruling on the lawsuit brought by Belstaff is unusual due to the large number of web pages that have been identified and delivered to the client for trial. Thanks to the proactive action of the Belstaff legal team, the US law firm DWT, and the use of the latest technology in online trademark protection, Belstaff can continue to reliably and securely offer its clients its coveted luxury goods through the online offer.
Since the publication of the ruling in June, Belstaff's brand protection strategy has remained firm and the company does not rule out taking similar action in the future against other potential counterfeiters.