Law Against Selling Fake Bags

In the United States, the law against selling fake bags is the federal trademark law also known as the Lanham Act. Trademarks are names, phrases, designs or marks that identify the source and manufacturers of products. Each state also has its own trademark laws, as do most countries outside of the United States.

Designs are not protected by copyright law, although designers continue to lobby Congress to change this. Since it is not illegal to copy the overall design of a handbag, if you purchased a bag that is merely shaped like the famed Hermes Birkin bag you are not necessarily carrying an illegal fake. It may simply be a clever knockoff.

However, if you are carrying a bag with a Louis Vuitton LV logo or if Hermes is engraved on the zipper, and you paid much less than market price, it is most likely counterfeit.

All logos and signifying details found on handbags must be authentic and if they are not the seller who sold you the bag has violated the law against selling fake bags by selling counterfeit goods. The market for fakes has gotten so big and buyers have become so knowledgeable, that counterfeit handbags are often hard to recognize unless you are an expert.

Since it is illegal, however, sellers and manufacturers of counterfeit handbags have many tricks to get their products past customs and fool buyers, such as:

• Sellers may purchase a knockoff and add a piece of fake hardware with a name, symbol or logo
• Logos may be stamped on bags
• Labels may be sewn inside bags
• Sellers may add a peel away piece that changes, for example, the interlocking 'CC' on a Chanel bag to an 'OC'

The most obvious way to recognize a fake is to know the origin. Any 'great' deal found in places like Canal Street in New York or Santee Alley in Los Angeles is a result of fakery. The best way to avoid purchasing counterfeit goods is to buy them from licensed sellers and resellers like Portero, a luxury auction site that takes great pains to authenticate its handbags.

Counterfeiting luxury goods is such a lucrative global racket that it is now run by crime syndicates that also deal in:

• Child prostitution
• Human trafficking
• Terrorism

Nonetheless, in the U.S., the law against selling fake bags does not come with heavy criminal penalties. In New York, for example, trademark counterfeiting is a class C felony, the same category as car theft.

Companies have been fighting back by securing large civil judgments against organized crime networks. They can then file seizure orders against criminals' houses, cars and bank accounts. A New York court in 2004 handed down a five hundred dollar million judgment on behalf of Cartier against Chinese and Vietnamese plaintiffs. They had been sending one hundred thousand dollars a day to their headquarters in Asia, profits from fake watches, since as far back as 1988.

If you are only buying the answer is no, but if you resell, perhaps. Many luxury goods companies complain that the U.S. isn't as serious about eliminating counterfeit goods as it should be. In France, for example, tourists caught bringing in counterfeit goods can receive a three hundred and ninety thousand dollar fine.

Also beware of purse parties, even though they may be organized by PTAs, churches or that attractive neighbor down the street. These bags are still counterfeit and the sellers subject to prosecution. One such lady, Virginia Topper, the wife of a New York lawyer, was busted with sixty thousand dollars cash in her underwear drawer and later sentenced to community service. Even Walmart and Costco have sold counterfeit bags and been held liable for willful blindness because they failed to confirm the origin of the goods they purchased.

In June of 2008, LVMH the owner of various luxury brands including Louis Vuitton won a judgment in France ordering eBay to pay three hundred and ninety two million euros in damages for failing to police its site. They were able to prove that ninety percent of all Louis Vuitton and Dior items sold on the site are counterfeit.

Many people think that purchasing fake handbags is fine. Breaking the law is justified with claims that sellers are just giving people what they want and besides the companies have plenty of money so they aren't really being hurt.

Yet it is in fact a crime. Buyers who purchase these counterfeit bags are giving money to criminal organizations. Profits from the sale of these handbags can be traced to terrorist activity. Often the conditions under which workers produce these goods are inhumane.

An exquisitely designed handbag is like a work of art and should be cherished and enjoyed, as long as it is legal.

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