Beats Seeks Billions from Chinese Counterfeiters Over Trademark Infringement

Chinese counterfeiters who ship fake Beats products have something major to fear: The soon-to-be Apple subsidiary has officially filed a lawsuit against all the companies who sell low-quality, fake Beats products alleging trademark infringement (via AppleInsider).

Beats

It’s just a matter of weeks, and Beats will officially become an Apple-owned company. And it seems like they want to join Apple by shaking up the market they have unwillingly built around them: the market of counterfeit Beats products.

“This action has been filed by Beats to combat online counterfeiters who trade upon Beats’ reputation and goodwill by selling and/or offering for sale unlicensed and counterfeit products featuring Beats’ trademarks,” the filing reads. “The Defendants create [fake internet storefronts] by the hundreds or even thousands and design them to appear to be selling genuine Beats products, while actually selling low-quality Counterfeit Beats Products to unknowing consumers.”

The attorneys for Beats estimate that the sale of fake Beats products generates an annual $135 billion. The catch is, these players have built their business in a way to maximize profits and minimize the chance of being discovered by law enforcement.

This, however, raises the question of whether the lawsuit will have the expected results, such as a permanent importation ban and forfeiture of all profits made from sales. While this amount is kind of hard to quantify, it is said to run into the billions of dollars.

While Beats is apparently tilting at windmills, it actually won a nearly identical lawsuit last year, which resulted in an order for the seizure of about 1,472 domain names, 50 PayPal accounts, and 14 online marketplace accounts.

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