NEW YORK — As the holiday shopping season kicks off, top luxury firms have stepped up efforts to protect their brands.Louis Vuitton Malletier, Burberry Limited UK, Burberry Limited U.S., Marc Jacobs Trademarks, Givenchy, Loewe S.A., Celine S.A. and Kenzo S.A. have filed a trademark counterfeiting and infringement lawsuit against a Chinatown landlord in Manhattan federal court.According to court documents, the lawsuit was filed against the estate of Vincent Terranova, the landlord of a number of properties located on Canal Street, and Terranova Real Property Management Corp., which manages and operates the properties. The specific addresses named in the lawsuit are 224 Canal, 226 Canal, 226A Canal, 234-238 Canal, 120 Walker Street and 120A Walker Street.The lawsuit was filed Nov. 21, but was only recently made available. Lawyers for Terranova Real Property Management could not be reached for comment by press time.Louis Vuitton, Burberry and the other named plaintiffs alleged that tenants at the properties named in the lawsuit were selling counterfeit merchandise that infringed on the firms' registered trademarks and copyrights.

I think that it is a very good thing that these luxury companies are filing a law suit against this man. I think it's about time that the city of New York is finally cracking down on this. The designer's have put a lot of time and work into their designs. It's not fair to the designer to have someone come along and create knock off designs and sell them to people for peanuts. Not only is the designer being robbed of their creativeness, but they're also being robbed of their money and dignity.

-Gwen Rutkowski

First Assignment-- Due Aug. 31

Find an article in the news about a topic relating to one of the key concepts in Chapter 1 of the Textbook, including Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights (Intellectual Property) as well as Licensing issues.

Write a report analyzing this article at least one-page, typed, double-spaced. Attach the article to your report. In addition to discussing how this story relates to the course topic, give your own analysis and opinion of this Intellectual Property issue.

Use sources from the LIM Library Electronic Resources. This can include ProQuest and Lexis-Nexis. Also, www.findarticles.com can be helpful.