Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
IP addresses are NOT logged in this forum so there's no point asking. Please note that this forum is full of homophobes, racists, lunatics, schizophrenics & absolute nut jobs with a smattering of geniuses, Chinese chauvinists, Moderate Muslims and last but not least a couple of "know-it-alls" constantly sprouting their dubious wisdom. If you believe that content generated by unsavory characters might cause you offense PLEASE LEAVE NOW! Sammyboy Admin and Staff are not responsible for your hurt feelings should you choose to read any of the content here. The OTHER forum is HERE so please stop asking.
A wallet from Louis Vuitton's Epi line. PHOTO: LOUIS VUITTON MALLETIER
Cuffz, which has since closed its Raffles City outlet, ordered to pay $35,000 in damages
K.C. Vijayan
Senior Law Correspondent
In the first reported case of counterfeit goods uncovered in the upmarket Raffles City Shopping Centre, a retailer has been ordered to pay $35,000 in damages to Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (LV).
Cuffz (Singapore), which deals in costume jewellery, was found to have carried three wallets bearing a surface similar to LV's Epi line of wallets but with the Cuffz brand logo on them. The Cuffz items sold at $75.90 each, versus $872.50 for the original LV products.
The items, which infringed LV's registered Epi trademark, were uncovered in January last year when a private investigator bought a piece in a "test purchase" and observed two more on display.
Registered in 1999, the Epi mark is characterised by interleaving ridges and valleys applied to the whole or predominant area of the product's surface.
Cuffz, which shut down its Raffles City outlet in May last year, did not show up when the assessment of damages hearing was held in May.
LV lawyers Antony Soh, Regina Quek and Shawn Poon urged the court to impose the maximum $100,000 payable under the Trade Marks Act, pointing to Cuffz's failure to disclose the source of the lookalikes when ordered to do so.
Assistant Registrar Edwin San, in judgment grounds released earlier this week, criticised Cuffz for its flagrant infringement of the Epi mark, noting that the culprit was "marketing its 'Cuffz' brand as one which conveys a sense of sophistication and elegance".
The Cuffz brand logo on the seized goods was "calculated to enable it to gain brand prestige through association with (LV)'s Epi mark," he added.
The court heard that LV, named the world's most valuable luxury brand by global brands and communications firm Millward Brown, had a brand value of about US$25.87 billion (S$35.3 billion) last year.
High Court orders company to pay $35,000 for selling fake Louis Vuitton wallets
A shopper looking at the window display of a Louis Vuitton store. A shopper looking at the window display of a Louis Vuitton store. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
Published Jul 24, 2015, 11:38 am SGT
Nurulnadiah Md Noh
SINGAPORE - The High Court has ordered a local company to pay $35,000 in statutory damages for selling imitation French luxury goods giant Louis Vuitton Malletier (LV) wallets.
The company had operated a retail shop in Raffles City Shopping Centre named Cuffz, selling fashion accesories, including wallets bearing the Epi Mark, a trademark of the luxury brand that is characterised by the interleaving ridges and valley, and a recognisable two-tone effect.
In the written judgement this week, Assistant Registrar Edwin San said that the local company was a commercial competitor who "flagrantly dealt in counterfeit goods" and who then "demonstrated a contumelious disregard" of the luxury brand's "intellectual property rights as well as the legal process".
The High Court had, in October 2014, ruled that the company had infringed the luxury brand's Epi Mark under the Trade Marks Act.
A private investigator engaged by LV had visited the shop in January 2014 and purchased a vertical bi-fold wallet that has the Epi Mark for $75.90.
Officers from the Intellectual Property Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department then raided the outlet in February 2014 and seized two wallets. The shop shut down its outlet in May 2014.
LV's lawyer Anthony Soh, said that the local company was "evasive and uncooperative throughout the entire proceedings" and sought the maximum amount of $100,000 in statutory damages.
Mr Soh submitted that the company could have sold at least 100 to 150 units of the infringing goods in Singapore and would have stocked approximately 100 to 250 of such units.
However, Mr San said based on the evidence provided, the figures were "too speculative".
He said the aggravating factor was that the counterfeit items "appears to have its own distinctive brand logo" - two small symmetrical diamond shapes under the words "Cuffz" - which leads to the inference that the company also manufactured the items.
Mr San also said that an infringer cannot be allowed to benefit by "simply folding its cards and walking away from the table scot-free upon the discovery of its infringement".
This is not the first time LV has taken a company to court in Singapore.
In September 2011, LV sued local footwear company Fashion Street for alleged trademark breaches in women's shoes. Retail chains Metro and Takashimaya were also named for selling the products at their stores in 2009.
In December 2009, LV withdrew four criminal charges against watch retailer City Chain for trademark infringement, after accusing the Hong Kong-based company of infringing LV's famed monogram trademark in its line of Solvil et Titus watches. However, judges ruled that the flower design used on the Solvil et Titus watches, while similar, was not identical to LV's flower trademark.
