Comment by markwrafter

October 2, 2007 @ 4:23 pm

Marta, is this true, purchasing these bags is now a criminal offence. Any idea to what other designer imitations it extends, watches and jewellery too, no?

Comment by martapiotrowska

October 2, 2007 @ 6:31 pm

buying immitations of all sorts (bags, shoes, watches) is illegal, always was.

In this particular case with the bags it has started quite recently in Tokyo, NYC, Milan, Paris and a few other big cities. It’s about all possible brands.

Comment by frankie

October 3, 2007 @ 12:24 am

I think that’s going too far, what happens when they’ve copyrighted every possible design?

Comment by margretgisladottir

October 3, 2007 @ 11:56 am

Yes this is true. I read about this a while ago. And it’s not just bags, it’s sunglasses, jewlery, watches and so on.

Comment by martapiotrowska

October 3, 2007 @ 5:39 pm

Frankie, the fact that immitations (of anything) are illegal is rather obvious - don’t you think?

With the bags and designer stuff is not even as much about the copyright of the bag design, it’s about using designer’s logo or a logo which is really similar, just mispelled name etc,

Comment by Trinity

October 3, 2007 @ 7:13 pm

hmmm just wondering Martapiotroska why you removed my comment to the effect that there is NO law at the moment to say that’s it’s a criminal offence. There are reports and recommendations but no law as such. Just wondering like :)

Comment by Trinity

October 3, 2007 @ 7:54 pm

To Frankie..
There are copyright laws.
On a slight tangent, we have a big case going on here in Ireland at the mo, Dunnes Stores and Karen Millen

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/dunnes-stores-copied-rivals-fashion-designs-court-hears-1114874.html

http://www.rte.ie/business/2007/1002/dunnes.html

Comment by lestyle

October 4, 2007 @ 9:07 am

Trinity, only the Le Style moderator has the right to moderate comments. Please relax.

I have received your comment, I have it here, but I can’t approve it, as there’s a bug causing it (and a few other comments, sorry Jean and Shawn) to be rejected. However I will post it here now so that it’s published for you.

QUOTE TRINITY - OCTOBER 3rd - 15.45GMT
”
There is no law there at the moment to say that it is a criminal offence, not to my knowledge anyway and I’ve worked in legal. Not here in Ireland and not that I am aware of in the UK. However, there was a report back in April 2007 and actually a UK law firm released a report on same quite recently as well, but it was just a report. The European Commission did put forward a proposal to strengthen the criminal law framework to combat intellectual property law offences but this was withdrawn and instead its provisions incorporated into a Directive (proposal!)

..In the directive, all intentional infringements of an intellectual property right on a commercial scale, including attempting, aiding and abetting such infringements, are treated as criminal offences.

I’m not sure of the exact ‘ins and outs’ but per se :) but that’s about the jist of it.
“