Luxury retailer Louis Vuitton is suing the operators of 182 websites, charging they’re selling counterfeit goods and infringing on Louis Vuitton trademarks.
Attorneys for Paris-based Louis Vuitton Malletier S.A. filed suit Monday in U.S. District Court for Nevada in Las Vegas, charging the defendants "directly target business activities towards consumers in Nevada and cause harm to Louis Vuitton’s business" in Nevada.
One of the attorneys, Stephen Gaffigan of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is involved in a similar suit filed April 18 in the same court against 223 defendants by luxury goods company Tiffany.
In the Louis Vuitton suit, the lawsuit alleges the defendants are likely from China or other foreign jurisdictions with lax trademark enforcement systems and use their websites to sell counterfeit goods of inferior quality including handbags, wallets, luggage, shoes, belts, scarves, sunglasses, watches and jewelry "bearing trademarks which are exact copies of the Louis Vuitton marks."
Similar to the Tiffany lawsuit, the Louis Vuitton complaint says the defendants defraud the public and use the Louis Vuitton names and marks "in order to make their websites selling illegal goods appear more relevant and attractive to search engines across an array of search terms."
The defendants, ranging from the owner of bagsfactory.net to the owner of louisvuittonreplica.org, are accused of trademark counterfeiting and infringement, false designation of origin, cyberpiracy and unfair competition.
Monday’s lawsuit seeks injunctions blocking the defendants from making and selling counterfeit Louis Vuitton products, a requirement that search engines and domain-name registrars stop providing Internet access to the defendants’ websites and an order canceling or transferring the domain names to Louis Vuitton.