Article | Legally Yours. Don't Mess With the Birkin! | secondcitystyle.typepad.com
Whoa! Sellers of fake Birkins...beware! According to WWD, a former employee of Hermès Taiwan has been ordered by Taiwan’s newly formed Intellectual Property Court to pay the French luxury goods house $7.5 million for the alleged sale of four fake Birkin bags. Even though Birkin's retail for about $16,000 this is a serious fine!
Defendant Joyce Lee, worked for Hermès from 1998 and 2000, and later began flying to Paris to purchase bags for her own customers. Later, Lee allegedly passed off fake bags as real ones to her customers. Allegedly Lee used her previous position to gain credibility with her customers and then sold the counterfeit items for even higher prices than genuine bags.
In December 2006, Hermès Paris sued Lee for trademark infringement, and she was found guilty in April 2008. A civil suit was subsequently filed in Taiwan’s new Intellectual Property Court. The $7.5 million fine is the largest award ever for trademark infringement.
No comments:
Post a Comment