Coach takes action
Everyone knows the counterfeit handbag market is big business. From Canal Street in Chinatown, NY to stores in the middle of Tennessee the shelves are often full of replica handbags that look just like original Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Fendi bags but are priced way below the average retail price of a genuine designer handbag.
However, the designers responsible for the authentic handbags are fighting back against the knock-off handbags and on Wednesday Coach Inc., a New York-based luxury fashion brand, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Nashville charging the owners of a Clarksville, TN store with counterfeiting and selling copyrighted designs of luxury handbags and other apparel.
Coach handbags regularly retail between $300 to over $1,000. However, in July of 2011 an investigator working for Coach went to Lee’s Wholesale Market in Clarksville and purchased a counterfeit Coach-branded bag for only $20. Following the purchase, Homeland Security agents executed a search warrant on the market n September of 20123 and seized more than 1,500 counterfeit Coach-labeled products.
Coach is seeking $2 million be paid for each trademark infringement. This is the third lawsuit filed by Coach Inc., seeking multi-million dollar damages for alleged counterfeit and trademark violations by middle Tennessee-area businesses in the past two years. In addition to Coach handbags, investigators have found counterfeit Coach brand wallets on sale for as low as $15 when the real wallets retail for $198.
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