Apple continues assault on fake stores, seizes fraudulent goods
Here's a battle for Apple that it should have no problem winning. It became known in July that there were several fraudulent Apple Store locations popping up in China,
Although the Chinese government has gone into action to shut down some of these vendors, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is taking on the problem itself -- at least stateside.
Earlier this month, Apple filed a trademark infringement suit against at least 50 John Does and unnamed businesses at the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York.
Now, it is being reported that Apple has taken matters into its own hands and cracked down on two stores, Apple Story and Fun Zone, in the Flushing neighborhood in Queens, New York.
Up until Thursday, the court documents filed with the Eastern District of New York were sealed. Now that they're opened, they reveal that Apple has already gone and seized numerous -- based on specific warrants -- unauthorized iPod, iPhone and iPad accessories that carried fake Apple trademarks.
Here are some of Apple's claims in the lawsuit, according to Reuters:
The headsets came with packaging that was "nearly an exact duplicate" of that for genuine Apple goods, the lawsuit said.
"Defendants are trading on and receiving the benefit of the goodwill Apple has established in the Apple trademarks through considerable labor and expense over many years," Apple said in its amended complaint.
Although the released documents did not include specifics about the other 50 John Doe identities, Reuters also reports that "Apple has won a court order requiring the defendants to turn over access to their business email accounts, which could yield clues about other defendants to be named at a later date."
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