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Wednesday
March 17, 2010 Since 1922 |
Police bust store for selling counterfeit clothes
By Jane Howard Lee
Contributor Published November 24, 2009 A Baytown storeowner closed his shop doors Friday after Baytown police took away his stock.
That’s because the shop was selling counterfeit versions of name-brand items.
Detective Alan Cliburn said police received a tip Friday that the Hip Hop Signature store in San Jacinto Mall was selling counterfeit clothing. Investigation proved the claim to be true, Cliburn said.
“We seized several hundred pieces of clothing with a retail value of about $55,000,” Cliburn said.
Those clothes included many counterfeits of the popular Ed Hardy line, as well as other brands, he said.
Cliburn said that the storeowner said that the clothing was purchased from sources in China.
The investigation is ongoing, but Cliburn said on Monday the Harris County District Attorney’s Office accepted charges against the store owner, a resident of Houston, and that he was in the process of filing on him for trademark counterfeiting, which is a third-degree felony and carries a possible punishment of 2-10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
The storeowner could also face civil action by the clothing lines whose products were illegally copied and sold as the genuine article, Cliburn said.
Contributor Published November 24, 2009 A Baytown storeowner closed his shop doors Friday after Baytown police took away his stock.
That’s because the shop was selling counterfeit versions of name-brand items.
Detective Alan Cliburn said police received a tip Friday that the Hip Hop Signature store in San Jacinto Mall was selling counterfeit clothing. Investigation proved the claim to be true, Cliburn said.
“We seized several hundred pieces of clothing with a retail value of about $55,000,” Cliburn said.
Those clothes included many counterfeits of the popular Ed Hardy line, as well as other brands, he said.
Cliburn said that the storeowner said that the clothing was purchased from sources in China.
The investigation is ongoing, but Cliburn said on Monday the Harris County District Attorney’s Office accepted charges against the store owner, a resident of Houston, and that he was in the process of filing on him for trademark counterfeiting, which is a third-degree felony and carries a possible punishment of 2-10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
The storeowner could also face civil action by the clothing lines whose products were illegally copied and sold as the genuine article, Cliburn said.