Milan, 5 June 2013

The department of the court of Milan responsible for entrepreneurship has filed a precautionary injunction, putting an end to the marketing of counterfeit watches of the well-known MANUAL model produced by Gagà Milano.

The counterfeit products were found in several retail outlets of a franchising network. The similarity was uncanny, especially with regard to the details: the shape of the case and the face design were identical. The only differences concern the use of plastic (rather than the quality materials used by Gagà Milano), the inevitably lower price, and the counterfeit logo (rather than the famous Gagà Milano logo).

The court also took into account Gagà Milano’s intense advertising campaign (newspaper adverts, sponsoring of sports events, etc.) in support of the Manual watch. In view of this, it stated that the sale of counterfeit goods, at low prices and using cheap materials, “is proof of the intention to exploit, without any effort or cost, the market status and potential to appeal [of the original Gagà Milano watch], resulting from the stylistic choices and advertising campaigns of the brand [Gagà Milano], taking advantage undeservedly of the merits (…) and operating with obvious competitive unfairness”. Consequently, in addition to design counterfeiting, the court has recognised substantial acts of competitive unfairness in the form of misappropriation of attributes and professional unfairness.

Gagà Milano will proceed to demand seizure of the goods, followed by a request for compensation.

Unfortunately this is not an isolated case: indeed, Gagà Milano has often been the victim of counterfeiting in various countries worldwide. However, the company has managed to counter this phenomenon successfully, through operations designed to prevent both the production and the marketing of counterfeit goods, and the wise decision to patent the fruits of its own creativity.

(article published in Corriere della Sera July 15th, 2013)