Richemont wins High Court fight against counterfeit sites

Internet service providers are being called upon to help crack down on
websites selling counterfeit goods, after Richemont, the owners of luxury
brands including Cartier, Montblanc, Van Cleef & Arpels and IWC won a High
Court ruling.

In what is thought to be the first ruling of its kind, the High Court
in the UK has issued that the main five UK internet service providers,
BSkyB, BT, EE, TalkTalk, and VirginMedia, block access to six websites
sporting fake versions of Richemont’s brands and selling counterfeit goods
that are under its trade marks.

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One of the websites in question was CariterLoveOnline.com, which sold
counterfeit versions of Cartier’s popular Love bracelet for less than $100.
Following the High Court ruling it appears that this website has been
taken down, with the ISP’s displaying holding pages stating that “
cariterloveonline.com is unavailable or may not exist”.

The landmark case has now opened the gates for brand owners to compel
ISPs to police trade mark infringement in similar way to how they enforce
copyright-infringing websites. However, the ruling did state that it was up
to the trade mark holder to find and identify IP addresses selling
counterfeit goods and then pass this information on to the ISPs.

High Court rules in favour of Richemont and instructs ISPs to block
counterfeit sites

The case, decided in the High Court of England & Wales by The
Honourable Mr Justice Arnold, ruled in favour of Richemont after he decided
that the sale of counterfeit goods was damaging to trade mark owners like
Richemont in at least four ways: “First, they may lose sales. Where goods
are advertised as replicas and sold at a fraction of the price charged for
the genuine articles, then it is unlikely that consumers will be deceived
and hence that the trade mark owner will have lost a sale at that
point…Secondly, counterfeit goods are almost always of lower quality than
the genuine articles.

“Thirdly, where the genuine articles were luxury goods with a cachet
that depends in part upon their expense, and hence exclusivity, this is
eroded by the availability of cheaper replicas. Fourthly, the availability
of counterfeit goods may have the effect of damaging the confidence of some
consumers in the legitimate market for such goods.”

A spokesperson for Richemont told The Guardian: “This case represents a
positive step in the fight to protect brands and customers from the sale of
counterfeit goods online. We are pleased by this judgment and welcome the
Court’s recognition that there is a public interest in preventing trade
mark infringement, particularly where counterfeit goods are involved.

“The Courts had already granted orders requiring ISPs to block sites
for infringement of copyright in relation to pirated content. This decision
is a logical extension of that principle to trade marks.”