Case Study 2: Copyright

The fake Apple stores in China

Apple is considered one of the most famous stores with one of the most recognized brands in the world. Recently in China there has been a discovery of five fake Apple Stores, one located in Kunming, two in Beijing and the other two in Shanghai. In these stores they sell fake Apple products and they use the brand name and logo. The products are also sold at the same prices as advertised on Apple's website. A blogger had spoken with the staff members at one of the stores and the person appeared to believe that he/she were Apple’s employees. 

Two of these stores were told to shut down, but they aren't being forced to close because of piracy or copyright violation, they’re being told to shut down because they didn't have official business permission.

China is generally poor, and the lack of regulation makes unauthorized production possible. Although the country has taken some steps to enforce Intellectual property rights in supposedly prohibits companies from copying, there are still many stores selling fake products.  

In this case the crime committed is a copyright violation, having the of use the name, logo and design of the brand replicated and using it as theirs.

In Europe copyright is better controlled but it can also happen, in China these things still happen more often because of the laws are not being properly enforced.     

Images of the fake Apple stores in China:

Case study Copyright

Louis Vuitton bags

The Louis Vuitton is a big brand name, the monogram canvas bags sells from $375 and up, the majority of these bags selling for over $1000. Online it’s possible to find many fake Louis Vuitton bags for less then $300. Some of these sellers state "replica" to make people think that the bag has some level of legitimacy, although to me fake and replica have the same meaning.

Of those bags that use the name Louis Vuitton and logo, they pay attention to many small details.

Even on the screen of "Hangover II", replica bags have been used completely ignoring copyright of luxury Louis Vuitton. In the scene, Alan (played by Zack Galifianakis) carries luggage marked LVM and warns another character "careful, that’s a Louis Vuitton". This shows how the studio has used up and copied intellectual property of this luxury.

These fake bags are heavily reproduced in China, Korea and Thailand. This is considered as a crime of copyright violation, because of the use of trademarked products that are similar to the original, using the name and logo of a brand. Those manufacturing countries are also generally poorer, and so have lower capacity for oversight. This is usually not a problem, because the licensing company provides quality control, substandard materials mean loss of contracts and possibly legal action, however through regulatory capacity makes unauthorized production is possible. Products of high demand can be manufactured based on the same or similar designs, often packaged and branded in ways to be indistinguishable from the original.

                                                                                                                                                                                                             

In the top image we can see a fake Louis Vuitton store and an bag. In these images we can also see the infraction of trademark of this product using a similar design, the name and logo of this brand.  

The real model of this bag cost £375 and the fake cost from $20 and $200.