Louis Vuitton issues a legal case to battle rogue websites selling counterfeit goods..

LV & Chanel issued a legal case to battle rogue websites.

Louis Vuitton has taken a legal stance by using the Stop Online Piracy Act (S.O.P.A) to help disable rogue websites that are selling counterfeit goods. The introduction of the bill was a result of an increase in infringement of copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.

Louis Vuitton have lodged a case to the Florida Federal Court not just to simply ask for an order restraining these websites from infringing their trademark but to completely abolish them from the internet. The case has stated that companies (located in the US) that offer web domain names to revaluate their system so that it does not ensure anyone using the trademarked names without consent.

This is not the first time a fashion house has used S.O.P.A. as a means to infiltrate the counterfeit industry, Chanel had issued a similar case to Nevada’s Federal Court. The federal judge had repeated granted injunctions that forced domain registrar and web hosting company Go Daddy and search engine giant Google to participate in the enforcement.

Our note: The ironic issue here is that many have opposed bills like S.O.P.A and P.I.P.A but these sanctions  are here to protect the consumer’s rights, you wouldn’t like to pay full retail price on a good only to find out that it is counterfeit.

We are always for in finding new means to fight against counterfeit products however the introduction of the S.O.P.A and P.I.P.A. legislation seems to allow brand owners private powers that may not be sanctioned by US law. This is the worrying bit if brand owners are given private powers this will be unfair as they will have the ability to set rules and legislation that will benefit themselves only, this will give them an unfair advantage in the ecommerce world.

We feel that S.O.P.A. and P.I.P.A. are laws that benefit those that are established and they should be rightly protected however it seems that those that they are protecting seem to abuse this system. We feel these legislation need to be revaluated because even blogging about these companies may be illegal aswell.

article written by: www.frontpose.com

p.s. under the S.O.P.A and P.I.P.A legislation this blog is technically illegal as we are "infringing content" but what the heck you CAN NOT STOP FREE SPEECH.