Everyone has seen the street vendor selling a too-good-to-be-true designer bag. The signs of counterfeiting luxury items were so clear that most people knew exactly what they were buying. Unfortunately this is no longer the case. According to the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (Freedman, 1999), the production of counterfeit goods causes American manufacturers to suffer approximately $200 billion in losses each year. Most counterfeit items are fashion items. They are usually easily recognisable, especially at the luxury or designer end of the market. The more exclusive a brand is, the more likely it is to be counterfeited (Lai & Zaichkowsky, 1999). Since these goods also have a high value, considerable profits can be made from counterfeiting these brands. In recent years, counterfeiting has become a major headache for designers, consumers and the government. Manufacturers, especially in Asia, create imitations of popular fashion items to sell them to unsuspecting consumers at a lower price than the originals. While there are some government agencies dedicated to catching these criminals, most are never caught due to the huge demand for these items. Due to the popularity of the Internet and online shopping, the problem can only get worse. In this article, research indicates that the production of counterfeit luxury goods has caused significant economic harm by competing with legitimate companies, eroding the value of counterfeit brands, causing the loss of American jobs, and preventing the United States from collecting taxes. on the counterfeiter's sales and profits. The counterfeit business makes it more difficult for authentic retailers to compete in the market. Legitimate businesses... half of document...993). USA Today Magazine, 122(2579).Freedman, D.H. (1999). The paradise of fakes. Forbes, 163(7), 49-54. International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition. (2005). The negative consequences of international intellectual property theft. Retrieved from http://www.iacc.org Lai, Kay Ka-Yuk, and Judith Lynne Zaichkowsky (1999), Brand Imitation: Do Chinese People Have Different Views? Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 16(2), 179-192.McCausland, C. (2010, April 26). Counterfeit goods: designer handbags, Rolex watches, and now airplane engine parts. Christian Science Monitor.Parloff, R., Chandler, C., & Fung, A. (2006). Not exactly counterfeit. Fortune, 153(8), 108-116.Roth, J. S., & Jacoby, D. (2009). Fashion, copyright and proposed law on the ban on design piracy. IP Litigator, 15(6), 1-8.Sommers, M., & Kilaru, N. (2008). The counterfeiting corner. Intellectual property litigation, 14(1), 41-42.