A judge in New York has ruled that Alibaba must face a lawsuit by a U.S. toymaker alleging that the Chinese ecommerce giant’s online platforms were used to sell counterfeit Squishmallows.
Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District Court of New York refused Alibaba’s request to dismiss the case filed by Kelly Toys Holdings, which makes the popular plush toys.
Kelly Toys is owned by Jazwares, a toy company whose parent company Alleghany Corp. is controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
Is it counterfeit or “factory repeats” i.e. “the gucci bag order is 1000. What if we run the belt for 2000, and then sell the leftover 1000 for 1/2 price, roughly 100x their actual cost, later?”
Lots of counterfeits are fakes, especially the really cheap version of something, but there are a surprising amount of “unauthorized” copies of things that are indistinguishable from the original.