Shortly before the acquisition of Beats by Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), to be completed, Beats sued a number of companies in China that manufactured counterfeit products based on the headphone series Beats. The American company initiated an attempt to combat companies that sell counterfeit headphones online based on the brand and reputation of the headphones Beats which are so popular all over the world.
This action has been filed by Beats to combat online counterfeiters who trade upon Beats' reputation and goodwill by selling and/or offering for sale unlicensed and counterfeit products featuring Beats' trademarks. The Defendants created [fake internet storefronts] by the hundreds or even thousands and designed them to appear to be selling genuine Beats products, while actually selling low-quality Counterfeit Beats Products to unknowing consumers.
Those from Beats claim that these headphones have applied their own brand and are sold through online stores that compare to the real ones from authorized sellers, but the products have a lower quality than the original ones. The Beats lawyers claim that everything is produced by a sophisticated organization that has built its business in such a way that the profit is maximum and the risk of discovery is minimal. Everything is based on the shipment of counterfeit helmets in small quantities to the USA through collection services, so that the customs service in the country cannot easily discover them, the identities of the senders being false.
Beats' lawyers claim that the websites that sell these counterfeit headphones generate sales of approximately 135 billion dollars annually, so we are talking about damages and lost profits that amount to many billions of dollars. Apart from the award of damages, the people from Beats demand the closure of the domains that sell these headphones, the company succeeding in 2013 through a similar action to obtain asura control of 1472 domains, 50 PayPal accounts and 14 accounts in various auction websites, all selling counterfeit headphones.
The action will most likely continue after the purchase made by Apple and it is one of the biggest ever made by Beats.
