I was wondering about starting a replica clothing store. What are the risks, could company's like True Religion sue you? Anyone with experience in this area please help! Thanks, Noc
What exactly is a replica clothing store? Would you be buying the products from a wholesale clothing company or making them from scratch? I dont see why it would be illegal.
Are you going to do this offline or online? I would discourage it, because alot of major retailers are lobbying the legislature to protect their businesses by going after knock off clothes. In Mobile, AL a few months ago, two shops were busted for selling fake clothes and fake shoes they imported from China. Online knock off shops are not under as much scrutiny, yet. Just be careful and make sure your customers know the items are fakes. If you sell to the wrong customer and they think they have purchased a certain brand, only to find out it is fake, they might come after you. Maybe you should sells some Ebooks or something
Ok thanks guys I wanted to sell like cheep replicas and people would know I just wanted to have good quality and good prices. But I didn't know how illegal it was. Thanks, Noc
If you want to read more, you might want to look at some of the code sections below: (1) conspiring to traffic in counterfeit goods, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371; (2) trafficking in counterfeit goods, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2320(a); and (3) concealing and selling imported counterfeit goods, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 545. You can read about some other people charges with these types of crimes here I would not want to be selling counterfeit good from a website which guarantees the authorities can know who you are.
They get pretty serious about things like trademark infringement. Not only might they sue, the may also get the feds involved. Could result in jail time. Our newspaper runs stories about raids at the local fleamarket all the time, arresting and fining and federal charges and all that.
Any infringement on trademark is a very serious offense. Rather than selling knock-offs and if you know that your supplier offers quality work, why not have them sold with your labels. Make sure that the logos and name do not resemble closely to a known brand.
Europe? Gimme a break do you think the whole world really evolves around America? In the UK they knuckle down on even legitimate american clothing really strongly. And to answer your question, if your not running it from a 3rd world country ie Thailand your going to get in a lot of trouble and probably imprisoned.
Well, here in Singapore, doing knock-offs would certainly be considered illegal and I believe that Europe is more advanced and probably more protective of copyright or trademark infringement so I am sure it would be deemed illegal there.
I'm not sure where in the world you are but i know dealing with fake clothing in the UK can't land you with 5 years in jail.
It is definitely illegal. What most companies do is alter the logo of the company they want to copy enough so it isn't illegal. Then, they call the clothing "designer inspired".