What's in a brand name, the high price of fraud?

What’s in a brand name, the high price of fraud?

With the Luxury jean market now exceeding the 14 billion dollar mark, you can best believe that not only are new designers entering the arena, but also the counterfeit knock off peddlers trafficking high-end premium denim counterfeit apparel.

It was only a matter of time.

First lets discuss the two different types of fraud.

The innocent little white lie kind a tactic used to confuse or misguide the consumer by changing a letter or making it sound like a pre-established designer.

This is commonly called similarly confusing name, whether done intentionally, as a form of flattery or intended fraud, the end result is always the same.  A consumer is driven to a product or merchandise by accident or by confusion.

Nowhere is that more prevalent than the Internet, with domain name registration.

We can look at the Internet for some very good examples.

Example #1

Donna Karen vs. Raymond Donn. Mr. Donn. Trying to register his domain under the dknyjeans.com the WIPO found in favor of the plaintiff under the Bad Faith Registration Act.

The Administrative panels have routinely found bad faith where a company’s trademark or products are registered to a company who has no connection to the company or product. (This guy wasn’t even selling jeans he was attempting to park the domain so that he could in turn re-sell it back to Donna Karan.)

Example # 2.

Phat fashion vs. Mywear, Mywear attempted to register the domain of phatshack.com again the real companies name is phatfarm.com do you see how easy the two could be mistaken.

Is imitation the sincerest form of flattery?

Example # 3 

Abercrombie vs. Chad Nelson, Mr. Nelson attempted to register his domain under the name Amberzombie, and even though it may be play on words the courts have found in the claimants favor.

Example # 4

Now this one company decided to be cute with the name

Jordache vs. Lardache jeans, using a pig as a logo so thus establishing that they were in no-way copying Jordache but again the similarities of the brand name is too much alike.

Their argument fell on deaf ears.

These are just but a few examples, the lesson here is the bigger the company whose identity you want to rip-off the longer the arm of the legal departments are and they have the resources and time to go after those who perpetuate fraud.

Now lets explore the second type of fraud. Outright deception companies or individuals selling counterfeit products under the perception that you are buying the “Real” thing.

Not even taking the time to be clever or covert, simply selling inferior goods under the name of a pre-established reputable designer.

Ex) 2006 True Religion used Ebay to purchase 50 pairs of their own brand jeans, they ended up with ninety percent of them being counterfeit. True Religion asked Ebay to stop and decease future sales on their online auction website.

True Religion is aggressively pursuing all those who sell fake True Religion products and in 2006 have claimed over 1 million in charges against the defendants, suing companies, and individuals selling counterfeit items, but they are not the only ones protecting their labels, and reputations. Seems as for every designer brand there is a knock off of that label. Other companies who have followed suit on Ebay are Red Monkey, Citizens of Humanity, Rock Republic, Joes just a few throwing up a warning flag of not only sellers

But to buyers as well, asking the consumer to warn them when they come across knock-offs, or counterfeit merchandise.

2007 What does Ebay do, it is now the single main source as how to spot counterfeit jeans, problem is that while not being a reputable vendor or distributor you are still at risk. So although Ebay is trying to find a way to police it’s sellers, the ultimate responsibility still falls on the buyer at this point an old saying comes to mind…”If it is too good to be true, well it usually is”, or did you really think you could buy a pair of pants that retails for $300.00 dollars from somebody who is selling them for $100.00

My advice to all if you are going to spend that hard earn cash on the real thing, then check out the validity of where you buy the product. All registered luxury jean vendors sign commitment contracts such as the one for True Religion, Royalty and Distribution Joe’s jeans Exclusive distribution no matter what the designer is calling the contract all these contracts have one thing in common you are legally bonded to adhere to all the stipulations in the contract and if you think that the designer jean company’s only go after Counterfeit traffickers think again, you can also be sued if you breach the contract. Lastly since only about 650 boutiques are registered to sell True Religion, you can find the information of who is an authentic distributor on the designers website but you may just want to look at the return policies most legitimate vendors have fair return policies.

Last word…

Avoid Online auctions, Flea markets, Second hand stores, Jean parties, or any place other than a real store front the risk of being ripped off is in your hands.