Louis Vuitton sues Carrefour

Louis Vuitton is suing Carrefour for allegedly selling copies of the luxury purveyor's handbags for $6 each in its Shanghai branch. This is one of the first incidences in which a foreign company sues another in a Chinese court of law over an intellectual property dispute, reports the FT. Louis Vuitton is demanding damages in the amount of €61,000 to €75,000 from the French supermarket chain.

The case began earlier this week, with the prosecuting lawyers claiming that three versions of a Louis Vuitton handbag had been on sale in Carrefour store in December. With an increasing amount of luxury goods companies launching complaints against the Chinese counterfeit industry, US president George Bush is believed to broach the subject when he meets with Chinese president Hu Jintao in Washington today.

According to the Supreme People's Court of China, 13,424 cases were intellectual property cases were launched in that country last year, an increase of 21 percent. These cases included patents, counterfeit goods and trade secrets. According to the same source, foreign companies only account for 449 of these cases, a mere 3 percent. However, China-based lawyers have told the FT that these numbers are difficult to verify. They did, however, admit that there as been a recent rise in litigation cases between Chinese companies.