Company allowing counterfeit sales of their products

[inguru]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Minnesota

A friend of mine bought some merchandise online and it turned out to be a fake. I deal in this product and was aware of the website selling the fakes. It's obvious they are fakes from the ads, if you know what you're looking for. Unfortunately, my friend doesn't and he never asked me for my opinion.

I told the company about the website. In fact, I've told them about a lot of websites selling counterfeit copies of their merchandise. They just seem to ignore the complaints, as nothing ever seems to be done. People are unknowingly spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on copies.

My friend is going to do a chargeback, so he should get his money back. Does the manufacturer have any sort of a duty to shut these sites / people down or can they just let anyone sell copies, not caring if their potential customers are scammed?

I've asked them about it. They refuse to respond.

The manufacturer is based in California. It's a billion dollar corporation, so it's not like it's a small outfit with no resources. The people / websites selling copies are all around the USA, and some international.

 

[Zigner]

Does the manufacturer have any sort of a duty to shut these sites

No they don't

 

[JETX]

Does the manufacturer have any sort of a duty to shut these sites / people down or can they just let anyone sell copies, not caring if their potential customers are scammed?

There is no legal obligation for them to police the sales of their products.... even counterfeit ones. It is simply a business decision to factor the cost (money, image, etc.) into the cost of pursuing the counterfeit marketers.

It's a billion dollar corporation, so it's not like it's a small outfit with no resources.

And that is the key (in my opinion). They are so large that a few thousand in occasional sales is not significant to them.... or their image.

 

[inguru]

There is no legal obligation for them to police the sales of their products.... even counterfeit ones. It is simply a business decision to factor the cost (money, image, etc.) into the cost of pursuing the counterfeit marketers.


And that is the key (in my opinion). They are so large that a few thousand in occasional sales is not significant to them.... or their image.

Don't they have to protect their trademark or risk dilution? Or is that a question I should ask on the Intellectual Property forum? Again, these are sites they are fully aware of. It's not something they don't know about.

Isn't Tiffany (not the company I'm referring to) sueing eBay, expecting eBay to police their website for counterfeit merchandise? So Tiffany expects eBay to do it, but there's no duty on Tiffany's part to do it?

They're probably losing millions in sales. It doesn't matter to their image because I don't think anyone knows the company allows it to happen.

 

[Zigner]

Don't they have to protect their trademark or risk dilution?

They don't HAVE to do anything to protect it. They may CHOOSE to do something, but there's nothing to directly compel it.