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2 December 2016Trademarks

Chanel takes on counterfeiters in TM suit

French luxury fashion company Chanel has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit at a US district court.

Chanel filed its lawsuit (pdf) against unidentified counterfeiters at the US District Court for the Southern District of California on Wednesday, November 30.

The company is seeking damages and injunctive relief for the infringement of its trademarks under the Lanham Act.

Chanel argued that the defendants committed unfair competition and that they falsely designated the goods’ origin.

The suit said that the defendants sold counterfeit products on e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com.

The defendants have not been identified but the suit alleges that they operate in “foreign jurisdictions with lax trademark enforcement systems”.

Chanel added that the counterfeiters “engaged in fraudulent conduct” when they registered their seller identifications online, which were used “for the sole purpose of engaging in illegal counterfeiting activities”.

The fashion house has owned trademarks at the US Patent and Trademark Office for the term ‘Chanel’ and the logo for ‘Chanel’ since 1985.

The marks cover classes 9, 16, 18 and 25 and include goods such as temporary tattoos, jackets, dresses, phone cases and handbags.

Chanel said that over the past ten years, visibility on the internet, through search engines like Google and Bing, “has become increasingly important to Chanel’s overall marketing and consumer education efforts”.

The luxury fashion company is asking for a preliminary and permanent injunction against the defendants, statutory damages from each defendant for $2 million per counterfeited trademark used and sold, costs of bringing the action, pre-judgment interest and attorneys’ fees.

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