Patagonia Takes on Maine Retailer Marden's For Selling Dupes
In a suit filed in a Maine U.S. District Court this week, Patagonia claimed that Marden's 'promoted, marketed, offered, and sold apparel products that bear counterfeit replicas of Patagonia's famous trademarks and logos.'
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According to the Ventura, Calif.-based brand, Marden's offered the counterfeit products for sale across 13 of its Maine stores, including in towns like Scarborough, Waterville, Gray, Biddeford and Sanford. At the Scarborough location, Patagonia alleged that Marden's displayed 90 units of counterfeit products, like replicas of its Nano Puff jacket, at one time. Other stores contained dozens of fake outerwear products and other items, like sweaters.
Based on the characteristics of the dupes, as well as the scope of the assortment and the widespread distribution of products, Patagonia claimed that Marden's conduct was 'knowing, willful, intentional, and/or malicious.'
The complainant wrote that because the counterfeit products are 'visually identical' to Patagonia's own jackets—and sold through similar and overlapping channels throughout Maine—the 'vastly inferior' items are causing harm to Patagonia's reputation and consumer goodwill. Shoppers are being deceived by the presence of such products at Marden's stores, some of which are close to legitimate retailers selling authentic Patagonia product.
Now, the company is seeking damages for the harm done to its name, and it's also aiming to recoup up to triple the profits Marden's might have made off of the faux outerwear. In its filing, Patagonia said Marden's should pay for its attorney fees and turn over any counterfeit goods, labels, documents and proceeds related to the scheme. The brand has requested a trial by jury.
Marden's, for its part, is asserting that the sale of dupes was a mistake.
'It was brought to our attention that Marden's unknowingly purchased mislabeled Patagonia Down Sweaters which were recently sold in our stores,' the company wrote in a Facebook post.
'These jackets were sold and invoiced to Marden's as authentic Patagonia products. Marden's is aggressively looking into this and we encourage any customers who purchased one of these Patagonia down sweaters to return it to your local Marden's for a full refund,' it added. 'All remaining products in question have been removed from our retail stores. We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience.'
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