Latest Counterfeit Stories

Police say a counterfeiting ring in Piacenza, Italy, was exposed after lap dancers identified bills shoved into their panties as fakes. Investigators said a former U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration engineer and a graphic designer created fake 20 and 100 euro notes that were ''virtually indistinguishable" from real money, ANSA reported Wednesday. However, police said the bills were spotted as fakes and brought to the attention of authorities by lap dancers and prostitutes...

The market for counterfeit luxury items is wide and deep, with everything from jewelry and perfume to handbags and sunglasses being sold. While busts such as the January seizure of more than $1 million in knock-off fashion accessories in New York City make headlines, counterfeit luxury items still are sold on streets all across the U.S. Now though, counterfeiters are well-established online, too. For bargain-hunters looking for name-brand items at discount prices online, Better...

By Stephen Foley In a ruling that some will see as a victory for online consumers but others view as a "counterfeiters' charter" a judge has ruled that auction sites such as eBay have no obligation to ensure that the designer goods being sold on their pages are genuine. In 2004, the exclusive New York jewellers Tiffany, which is fiercely protective of its brand, launched an investigation into the sale of its goods online. Officials trawled eBay and bought 200 items purporting to be genuine...

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif., July 1 /PRNewswire/ -- At the July 16 AGMA (Association for Abatement of Counterfeit and Gray Market Activity) meeting, New Momentum, provider of enterprise risk management software, will do a presentation and demonstrate the company's Enterprise Brand Intelligence software which provides global, open market visibility for counterfeits and unauthorized sales. The presentation titled, Building a Business Case and ROI: Justify the Need for Daily, In-Depth Visibility into...

By Emily Pykett ONLINE auction house EBay has been ordered to pay GBP 31 million in damages for selling fakes over the web, in a ruling that could have important implications for internet businesses worldwide. A French commercial court yesterday ordered EBay to pay LVMH Mot Hennessy Louis Vuitton, home to prestigious brands such as Fendi, Emilio Pucci and Marc Jacobs, for selling counterfeit goods, including Louis Vuitton-branded handbags, perfumes and sunglasses. The auction site was...

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The United States may bring a World Trade Organization case against China over rampant counterfeiting in the country, but prefers to resolve such issues directly with Beijing, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday. Franklin Lavin, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, said Washington continued to favor cooperation with China to help it tackle intellectual property theft. "If there are cases where that's not successful, then the WTO is a...

By Doug Palmer WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and European Union are launching a joint campaign to fight the huge global trade in fake and pirated goods, beginning in Russia and China, EU officials said on Monday. "Stepping up the enforcement fight required a joint strategy and it needed to have some teeth," EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said in a statement. The initiative coincides with the annual U.S.-EU summit meeting in Vienna on Wednesday between President Bush,...

By Doug Palmer WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and European officials hope to agree on a number of steps to halt piracy in China, Russia and other countries around the world in meetings on Thursday and Friday, a Commerce Department official said. "We've got to be as global and sophisticated in our approach as the pirates and the counterfeiters are in their approach," Chris Israel, the point man for the Bush administration's anti-piracy efforts, said in an interview. The two-day meeting...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has asked China to provide evidence of what it is doing to stop the "rampant" piracy and counterfeiting of American goods ranging from movie, music and software to auto parts, medicine and shampoo, U.S. trade officials said on Wednesday. "The United States is deeply concerned by the violations of intellectual property rights in China," U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said in a statement that the United States was invoking a rarely used...

By Kirby Chien BEIJING (Reuters) - The new head of Washington's anti-piracy drive has made China his first official overseas destination to drive home the point that the mainland is the main culprit in the huge business of counterfeit products. "The strategy is to focus on the places where the problems are most pronounced," Chris Israel, Coordinator for International IP Enforcement, told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday. Washington says about 70 percent of the counterfeit products...