Luxury fashion lines Cartier and Montblanc clinched a U.K. court ruling that bars internet providers from permitting websites dealing in counterfeit goods. U.K. service providers such as Sky Plc, BT Group Plc and TalkTalk Telecom Group Plc have been ordered to prevent access to a total of five sites because they “infringe the companies’ trademarks by selling fake goods,” said Judge Richard Hacon in a ruling issued last Tuesday.
In what represents the second instance of luxury brands requesting U.K. court intervention to protect their intellectual property on the web, jurists are addressing a growing crime ring. According to a 2014 government report, intellectual property crime costs the U.K. economy about 1.3 billion pounds ($1.8 billion) a year in lost profits and taxes. A similar report from the International Chamber of Commerce indicated that the global economic impact of counterfeiting and piracy trade would reach $1.7 trillion by 2015.
According to industry beat The Fashion Law, the ISPs weren’t represented in court and took a neutral stance on blocking the sites, telling the judge in written documents that closing five websites may not make “any difference to the scale of infringement,” Hacon said. “We block websites as and when directed to by a court order,” a TalkTalk spokesman said in an e-mail.
“This case represents a positive step in the fight to protect brands and customers from the sale of counterfeit goods online,” Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA, the owner of Cartier and Montblanc, said in a statement. “There is a public interest in preventing trademark infringement, particularly where counterfeit goods are involved.”
The case is Cartier International v British Telecommunications Plc, U.K. High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, HC2015004980
