Oakley Snags 2.7 Million Fake Products

February 17, 2004
SGB Update

In its ongoing campaign to identify and aggressively pursue violators of its protected designs and trademarks, Oakley, Inc. highlighted the results of its 2003 anti-counterfeiting efforts.

Working closely with a wide variety of local, national and international law enforcement agencies, Oakley's legal team oversaw the confiscation of 2,739,754 fake Oakley products, primarily sunglasses, worldwide in 2003, with an estimated street value totaling more than $27 million. This represents a 156 percent increase over the 1,071,755 products confiscated the previous year. For the year there were 447 total worldwide arrests of individuals participating in the sale of such fakes, 111 of whom were outside the U.S. This was due in large part to the company's stronger efforts to educate and train law enforcement agencies worldwide resulting in more arrests against counterfeiters in important international markets.

“We take our brand and image very seriously and will look to the ends of the earth to stop the unauthorized use of our name, designs and trademarks,” Chief Executive Officer Jim Jannard warned. “Thanks to the effort and cooperation of numerous law enforcement agencies around the world, we have raised the profile of our anti-counterfeit programs. Our products deliver unmatched protection against the harmful UV spectrum and against the risk of traumatic eye injuries caused by projectiles and a wide range of other impact forces. We believe it's a matter of principle and a matter of integrity to protect our loyal customers from dangerous imposters.”

Vance Lommen, Oakley's Director of Legal and Security added, “This year was a record year for product confiscations and illegal Internet auction site terminations and is a direct result of the efforts of our team and their close work with law enforcement and global governments. In 2003, we continued our focus on international arrests because most of the illegal manufacturing takes place overseas and these arrests will have the biggest impact on our efforts to curtail the flow of illegal products worldwide.”

Oakley's enforcement efforts also succeeded in limiting the illegal sale of products over the Internet. More than 20,000 auctions, including auctions on eBay.com and yahoo.com, were shut down, deleted, or otherwise cleansed of counterfeit Oakley products. Violations included auctions of counterfeit merchandise, auctions showing Oakley's copyrighted images and auctions violating policies involving key word spamming, a practice involving the misuse of the name “Oakley” to draw attention to an auction. Total restitution collected in 2003 was more than $220,000 and will be used to further Oakley's anti-counterfeiting operations in this ongoing battle to protect the Oakley brand.

Oakley Snags 2.7 Million Fake Products

SGB Update

In its ongoing campaign to identify and aggressively pursue violators of its protected designs and trademarks, Oakley, Inc. highlighted the results of its 2003 anti-counterfeiting efforts.

Working closely with a wide variety of local, national and international law enforcement agencies, Oakley's legal team oversaw the confiscation of 2,739,754 fake Oakley products, primarily sunglasses, worldwide in 2003, with an estimated street value totaling more than $27 million. This represents a 156 percent increase over the 1,071,755 products confiscated the previous year. For the year there were 447 total worldwide arrests of individuals participating in the sale of such fakes, 111 of whom were outside the U.S. This was due in large part to the company's stronger efforts to educate and train law enforcement agencies worldwide resulting in more arrests against counterfeiters in important international markets.

“We take our brand and image very seriously and will look to the ends of the earth to stop the unauthorized use of our name, designs and trademarks,” Chief Executive Officer Jim Jannard warned. “Thanks to the effort and cooperation of numerous law enforcement agencies around the world, we have raised the profile of our anti-counterfeit programs. Our products deliver unmatched protection against the harmful UV spectrum and against the risk of traumatic eye injuries caused by projectiles and a wide range of other impact forces. We believe it's a matter of principle and a matter of integrity to protect our loyal customers from dangerous imposters.”

Vance Lommen, Oakley's Director of Legal and Security added, “This year was a record year for product confiscations and illegal Internet auction site terminations and is a direct result of the efforts of our team and their close work with law enforcement and global governments. In 2003, we continued our focus on international arrests because most of the illegal manufacturing takes place overseas and these arrests will have the biggest impact on our efforts to curtail the flow of illegal products worldwide.”

Oakley's enforcement efforts also succeeded in limiting the illegal sale of products over the Internet. More than 20,000 auctions, including auctions on eBay.com and yahoo.com, were shut down, deleted, or otherwise cleansed of counterfeit Oakley products. Violations included auctions of counterfeit merchandise, auctions showing Oakley's copyrighted images and auctions violating policies involving key word spamming, a practice involving the misuse of the name “Oakley” to draw attention to an auction. Total restitution collected in 2003 was more than $220,000 and will be used to further Oakley's anti-counterfeiting operations in this ongoing battle to protect the Oakley brand.

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