About a week ago Dubai’s Department of Economic Development (DED)–who are essentially the “Trademark Infringement Police”–were videotaped by the Al Arabiya-Khaleej Times-English, executing raids in various shops and locations in Karama.
REAL ACTION INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO
The 13-minute video takes the viewer–for starters–through typically open-area shops in the market section…but then they journey through a labyrinth of back rooms to Louis Vuitton and Chanel and Gucci and UGG counterfeits…to electrically controlled secret doors in the back rooms–through more secret doors–to even more counterfeits and, eventually, to a modern elevator building with a pleasant marble-walled lobby and into a vast “showroom” apartment with a triple-locked front door with room-after-room and shelf-after-shelf of counterfeit handbags, and glasses, and belts, and watches, and boots, and on and on…
SHOWROOM APARTMENT
The apartment has multiple rooms and wraparound shelves designed like a high-end retail outlet showroom on Fifth Avenue in New York City or Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Delightful, cozy, bright lighting, in which to view the counterfeit booty. Not some dingy backroom or warehouse. It is quite a sight.
TRAINING VIDEO
The video also makes for an excellent step-by-step training film that details the Dubai DED administrative procedure. It would be a useful training video for any trademark infringement enforcement team.
ARE LANDLORDS HELD RESPONSIBLE?
I do wonder if the Dubai authorities have legally advanced to the point of holding landlords responsible for renting space to counterfeiters.
Excellent work Dubai DED!
Link to full article and video:
Al Arabiya-Khaleej Times-English, April 10, 2018, WATCH: How Dubai Economy Officers Raid Stores Selling Counterfeit Items