OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — A popular flea market in Osceola County is facing a federal trademark and copyright infringement lawsuit filed by a high-end handbag designer.
Coach, Inc., which makes purses, wallets and accessories, said it wants the 192 Flea Market to stop selling fake items using the Coach name. The company recently sent an investigator to the flea market who found fake Coach items, according to the lawsuit.
Channel 9 went to the flea market on U.S. 192 Tuesday and found an imitation Coach purse on sale for $39.99. The seller told reporter Ryan Hughes the handbag is fake, but the well-known Coach name is used to sell it.
That's why the company filed the lawsuit against the flea market for allowing vendors to sell the items.
"There's a whole bunch of fake knock-off stuff like Louis Vuitton, Coach, Chanel," one shopper said.
The lawsuit states the illegal fake products harm the company and the economy.
"All those add up to billions of dollars in revenue that the trademark owners are losing," said Stephen Milbrath, an Orlando attorney who's not on the flea market case.
Milbrath said the fake merchandise has been an ongoing issue in central Florida, but recently more companies have been fighting back.
"You hope to educate them or put them out of business so that they are no longer in the business of selling the counterfeit products," Milbrath said.
A vice president with Coach released a statement to WFTV regarding the lawsuit:
"The company is putting the world on notice that it has a zero tolerance for anyone involved in trafficking counterfeit goods."
Coach has filed 750 lawsuits as part of its anti-counterfeiting campaign.