Supreme is not as popular in Poland as it is in the United States, but for fans of hip hop and skateboarding, it is undoubtedly a desirable brand. The store was founded in New York in 1994 and has always focused on producing its own accessories, clothing, and, above all, skateboards. Rapid growth led to the fact that the products, and especially the brand’s logo, became widely popular in the clothing markets around the world. As a result, the trademark “Supreme” ranks among the top brands in terms of counterfeiting and use by fraudsters. Interestingly, brands like Vans, Patek Phillipe, and Ray Ban rank lower.
The global success of the brand led to the creation of a department within the company that deals with fighting various companies that try to exploit all possibilities and legal loopholes to introduce counterfeit products into the market without penalty.
Recently, Americans have achieved success in a challenging environment. However, it is important to emphasize that the complex Chinese law was not the only difficulty in this dispute. In fact, a competitive company from the United Kingdom, International Brand Firm (IBF), turned out to be a formidable opponent. In an attempt to exploit the disputed trademark “Supreme,” IBF went a step further than simply producing illegal counterfeit goods. Taking advantage of the fact that the American brand Supreme is not officially available in countries such as China and Italy, IBF decided to register trademark protection for Supreme in these countries and operate in the market under the name Supreme Italia, which ultimately resulted in the introduction of so-called legal counterfeits.
As a result, the British company opened its boutiques in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, and, capitalizing on its success, announced the opening of several dozen more in various regions of the world. Interestingly, Philips also wanted to cooperate with Supreme Italia, but this plan fell through when the company learned that it was dealing with a company that plagiarized products from the official brand store.
In order to fight against the phenomenon of legal counterfeits, the American company obtained legal status in China, which ultimately allowed it to shut down the operations of Supreme Italia stores. This undoubtedly represents a success for the Americans in the eastern market, but Supreme also faces other legal disputes in Europe. Interestingly, in this case, things may not be as favorable as in China, as in countries such as Spain and Italy, the courts are not very receptive to the American company.
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