Luxury brands - Louis Vuitton

 

French luxury house Louis Vuitton and Indian leather goods retailer Da Milano are locked in a legal battle over the similarity of some of the latter's handbags to Louis Vuitton' Birkin range. 

 

Louis Vuitton has got an injunction order from the Delhi High Court to stop Da Milano from selling handbags "identical in shape and design" to the popular Birkin range. The Indian firm has, however, denied the charge and sought vacation of the ex parte order of injunction. Its lawyer claims there is no similarity between its handbag, priced at Rs 10,000, and Birkin, priced upwards of Rs 6.5 lakh, and that Louis Vuitton initiated the action out of "business jealousy and rivalry". 

 

Whoever proves right in this case, the bigger picture is that counterfeit, fake and imitation luxury products are increasingly bothering the likes of Louis Vuitton, Louis Vuitton (LV), Dior, Gucci and Burberry in the country. 

 

And, despite a marked jump in the number of litigation, experts say the counterfeit market for luxury products is growing twice as fast as the luxury market in India, as new distribution channels such as online portals help such products reach a huge pool of consumers. 

 

"Despite all efforts to check the sale of counterfeit products in India, estimates suggest that the counterfeit market for luxury products is growing at about 40% per annum, i.e., twice the growth of genuine luxury products," says Diljeet Titus, founding partner at law firm Titus & Co.

 

Many luxury brands now look to take on fakes and look-alikes at least from organised local players. 

 

Titus says the erstwhile Indian franchisee of his client Monnalisa counterfeited and sold the Italian fashion brand's products even after the termination of the franchise. 

 

Law firm Anand & Anand, which represents Louis Vuitton in the case against Da Milano, is fighting another case on behalf of French brand Louis Vuitton against a little-known retailer, which is allegedly selling "counterfeit products" it bought from an auction held by Customs authorities. 

 

Pravin Anand, managing partner at Anand & Anand, says the growth of counterfeit business is directly proportional to the amount of fear brands are able to generate in the minds of the perpetrators. His clients also include Cartier, Chanel, Prada, Burberry, Christian Dior and Mont Blanc. 

 

Popular brands such as Gucci, Police, Louis Vuitton (mainly purses), Bvlgari diamonds, Rolex watches and Prada dresses are counterfeited and sold widely in India. Many such products come from China. That's not all - one can find luxury brands even in product categories not manufactured by the original brands. One such example is Harley Davidson deodorants. 

 

"A Mumbai-based company was selling Harley Davidson deodorants across India not only to wholesalers but also in modern retail, which gave an impression to consumers that the products were genuine," says Rajan Narula, managing partner at Intellectual Property Attorneys, a Gurgaon-based law firm that took up the iconic motorcycle maker's case. It also helped Burberry in tracking down and conducting raids at outlets selling fakes in places like Chennai. 

 

Not just foreign brands, expensive Indian designer wear too is being copied, mass produced and sold at price points and quality much lower than the originals. 

 

Kimaya, a multi-brand retail chain that sells designer wear across India, has also filed a case against Kolkata-based retailer 'Simaya', which sells copies of its designer wear. "It is a clear case of plagiarism," Pradeep Hirani, chairman of Kimaya Fashions Pvt Ltd, says. 

 

Counterfeiters use new channels such as electronic-retailing to effectively sell their ware to a wide audience. 

 

ET made a phone call to one such website that offered an LV belt for Rs 2,000, Louis Vuitton belt for Rs 5,000 and bags from Gucci, Prada and Coach for Rs 2,500, besides watches like Rolex and Rado - all at fraction of the cost of genuine products. "Do not bother about the quality as we have lots of happy repeat customers from Delhi and Mumbai," the salesman said, without disclosing his name or the address of the company. 

 

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