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Luxury brand Louis Vuitton has taken action against more than 85 defendants accused of online counterfeiting.
Filed at the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida on May 24, the lawsuit sought injunctive relief and damages against the defendants for trademark infringement.
It also accused the defendants of false designation of origin, cybersquatting, and common law unfair competition.
Louis Vuitton claimed that the defendants had sold goods bearing counterfeits and confusingly similar imitations of its trademarks through online stores.
The brand’s trademarks include ‘Louis Vuitton’, a word mark where the letter V is placed over the letter L, and a number of different designs.
According to the claim, the “recent explosion of counterfeiting” over the internet has created an environment that requires Louis Vuitton to file a large number of lawsuits.
It added that the alleged counterfeiters are part of a scheme to confuse consumers regarding the source of their goods and to expand the marketplace for counterfeit goods while “shrinking the legitimate marketplace for genuine Louis Vuitton-branded goods”.
Louis Vuitton is seeking injunctive relief, transfer of the domain names, triple profits, triple damages and attorneys’ fees.
Louis Vuitton, trademarks, counterfeits, trademark infringement, online counterfeiting
