Have Burberry, Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Prada finally won the war against China’s counterfeit trade? Not yet. But this month, there was a promising start as the Beijing’s Silk Street Market buckled under legal pressure and temporarily shut the stalls of 29 offending vendors.
Not surprisingly, the vendors were outraged at this sudden development and protested aggressively in front of IntellecPro, the Beijing intellectual property firm that are representing the five luxury brands. In fact, the protests were so intense that IntellecPro’s senior partner, Hu Qi, was afraid to go home and stayed in a hotel for three nights.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the Silk Street Market case. It’s about time that China took a stand against its often unflattering copycats. There are way too many fakes out there (and we’re not just referring to the handbags!)
Read more on this case in an in-depth New York Times article.
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