How to Protect Yourself from the Brand Pirates

How do you protect your brand if hundreds of Chinese websites are selling knockoffs of your premium-denim jeans?

If you're True Religion, you take them to court and win a nearly $900 million judgment.

Last year, True Religion sued 106 defendants representing 282 Chinese websites that carried names such as TrueReglionJeans4Outlet.com, TrueReligion2Cheap.com and CheaperTrueReligionJeans.net. After making buys on the websites and verifying that the jeans were fakes, True Religion sued in U.S. District Court in New York to shut down the websites.

In a March 12 default judgment, Judge Harold Baer ruled that the websites were willfully counterfeiting the True Religion trademark and needed to shut down and pay up.

Deborah Greaves, in-house counsel for True Religion, said the Los Angeles company doesn't really expect to collect all that money. But it was able to disable the websites and collect money from their PayPal accounts, which might be enough to cover attorneys' fees.

However, as soon as True Religion shutters one website, another 20 pop up. “It's like whack a mole,” said Greaves, who has been very aggressive in protecting the True Religion brand ever since she was hired by the company in 2007. “You just have to hope that after a while, when we chase them and disable them and make it difficult to do business, they will decide there is another brand they can focus on that won't give them as much grief. Honestly, we can't give up. What are we going to do? Roll over and let them destroy the brand, or fight?”

Greaves was speaking at a panel on protecting brand names and dealing with counterfeiting. It was held April 19 in Vernon, Calif., and organized by the California Fashion Association, a Los Angeles trade group representing the apparel and textile industry in California.

Joining Greaves on the panel were attorneys Mark Brutzkus of Ezra Brutzkus Gubner; Michelle Cooke of Steptoe & Johnson; Jeffrey Kapor of Buchalter Nemer; and Gregory Weisman of Ritholz, Levy, Sanders, Chidekel & Fields. Also joining the panel was Kevin Sullivan, executive vice president at Wells Fargo Capital Finance, and Ilse Metchek, president of the California Fashion Association.

Going to the Web

Metchek noted that the top three counterfeit purchases these days are music, movies and brand-name clothing. Fake products now represent 5 percent to 7 percent of all global trade.

About 25 percent of people who purchase fake goods know they are counterfeit. Another 73 percent bought the knockoffs just because they were there. “There are a lot of people buying fake Louis Vuitton bags who don't know who he is,” Metchek said.