While at the mall the other day I saw a cart selling knock off designer sunglasses. They had the sunglasses laying out with signs saying compare to gucci, compare to prada, or what ever. Now if I was to take handbags and do the same thing, I would go to jail. Why can sunglasses be replicated and not purses? Are intellectual property laws not the same for all items? I just dont understand.
2006-07-11 07:00:29 · 8 answers · asked by nigel 3 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
other than copyrights and trade marks, what about trade dress, it is certainly trade dress???
2006-07-11 07:12:14 · update #1
trade dress makes it illegal to compare it to the real thing, at least with other products.
2006-07-11 07:13:30 · update #2
I THINK THEY ARE EQUALLY ILLEGAL
the people at the mall were just lucky not to get caught or were under different circumstances
+ they were stating to COMPARE TO DESIGNERS and not passing them off as the real designer's make
that would be the difference
2006-07-11 07:04:02 · answer #1 · answered by ▲▼▲▼ 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Trade dress referrs to the general look of an object, like the shape of a Coke bottle (which is trademarked, so I know that's a bad example). Trade dress laws do not make it improper to suggest that a consumer compare one product with another. It would be a problem if they claimed the products were gucci or prada, etc., but if they are not misappropriating the trademarks, trade dress would probably be really hard to prove in such a case.
2006-07-11 07:28:58 · answer #2 · answered by Cara B 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your missing the fact that most of the time purses are passed off as the real thing. Yes we know they are knock offs but they have the gucci label or prada label. As long as you don't misrepresent what it is you can sell it. Your thinking of trademark infringement
2006-07-11 07:03:16 · answer #3 · answered by The Angry Stick Man 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i'd in my opinion purchase a handbag. Ray-bans can get quite extreme priced, and also you need to get a attractive handbag between $20-40 i love Ray-bans yet i imagine knock offs are in basic terms as attractive ahahaa plus you need to purchase many diverse styles of inexpensive shades for about $10 or a lot less a chunk the handbag in basic terms looks more suitable functional to me :)
2016-12-10 07:58:09 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can say "they compare to gucci" but you cannot say that "they ARE gucci". That is the subtle difference. You can compare a knockoff to the real thing, you just can't sell a knockoff AS the real thing.
2006-07-11 07:11:15 · answer #5 · answered by hotsauceg 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am willing to bet they looked similar, but didn't have the exact logos on them. Its illegal either way. Called copyright infringement.
2006-07-11 07:02:41 · answer #6 · answered by B26 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
actually it's not copyright infringement...it's trademark infringement...copyright is for things that are written (e.g. books, plays, etc)
2006-07-11 07:04:50 · answer #7 · answered by josh b 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
www.jffashion.com
the world of handbags
2006-07-15 23:10:25 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋