Friday, May 21, 2010

L’Oreal Trademark Victory: End of Fragrance Dupes?

According to Business Week, the Court of Appeal’s judgment in London today "follows a decision last year from the European Court of Justice setting out how far L’Oreal, the world’s largest cosmetics maker, can go under EU law to block marketing of copied scents. The U.K. court said it had a “duty” to apply the European ruling. “The ECJ’s decision in this case means that poor consumers are the losers,” Judge Robin Jacob said in the ruling. “Only the poor would dream of buying the defendants’ products. The real thing is beyond their wildest dreams.” " Hmmm...maybe they haven't heard of obsessive compulsive collectors who amass everything! But I digress.
“There is a bit of a message that the price of the real thing may be excessive and that the ‘luxury image’ may be a bit of a delusion,” Jacob said in the ruling. Naturally as the dupe costing 4.30$ for the 100ml bottle is abysmally low compared to the 100 pounds or so for the real thing! L'Oreal however insists that we're talking of 120million in loss revenue.
According to Hamish Porter the judgement has been an "an “indictment” of the European court’s approach to protecting well-known brands".
You can read the whole case following the link at the top.

4 comments:

  1. Alexandra13:37

    “There is a bit of a message that the price of the real thing may be excessive and that the ‘luxury image’ may be a bit of a delusion” . Huh. We all know that. I`ve recently found L. de Racine made by German company LR and it is great dupe of old Montana from 1986. And not some chinese dupe but really great done, identical smell, strong and long lasting. Since I had no luck with vintage Montana, every bottle I`ve tried was off and very weak, I was thrilled.

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  2. A,

    it definitely gives pause as a statement. Sometimes there are good dupes, I agree. I have no idea of what you're talking about, but it sounds good. Say, is the Montana deteriorated due to age and you find it weak?

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  3. Alexandra17:09

    Yes, definitely something is wrong with old bottles of Montana Perfum de Peau. It is originally very strong fragrance, but 3 old bottles (spray) that I`ve tried were all weak, like water with a hint of original scent in the opening. So, something in its formula is deteriorating with time. I have much older perfumes that are all right, but this one is a problem. New Montana PdP is OK, but it is different then old formula (but I think it is disc. again)

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  4. A,

    hmmm, very interesting info, thank you!!
    Yes, I recall it was very strong. My own bottle has juice that has become a little thick with age and smells even more pungent. I know the new version is tamer than the older one, but if you know that it deteriorates with age, it's probably not worth stocking up on old batches...Shame. But there you have it. Like I always say, one can't get stuck in the past.

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