Supreme: fake or legal fake?

Supreme lookalike stores

More and more Supreme lookalike stores are popping up, selling clothing and merchandise that look a lot like the original brand and sometimes even use nearly the same name (for example, Supreme Spain and until recently Supreme Italia). These stores are in no way connected to the original fashion brand from New York, and that causes confusion among consumers.

Intellectual property fraud

The question that arises here is whether or not it is intellectual property fraud. There is a real difference between counterfeit goods and the so called legal fake commodities. Counterfeit goods are copies of brand items made with the intention to mislead consumers. The product is sold as if it is the original brand even though it isn’t. This is not allowed.
Legal fake is a phenomenon from the fashion industry in which a company copies a logo, adverts and merchandise from a popular brand to nearly look identical in order to piggyback on the brand’s success. In this case it’s not clear if it’s counterfeit goods because the intention was not to make a replica and market is as such. It’s a gray area.

Brand protection

In order to protect their brand Supreme (New York) started a lawsuit against Supreme Italia in Italy. Recently an Italian judge working on the case pronounced that this is unfair competition and that Supreme Italia has to close their (online) stores and stop all of their sales efforts.

In multiple Spanish cities comparable stores can be found. Supreme Spain has made a patent application with the Spanish Patent office OEPM (Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas). If it comes to a lawsuit, the judge will have to look at the permissibility of the Supreme Spain stores. Exactly like what happened in Italy.