Popular Counterfeit
The most popular counterfeit brand uncovered by the Korea Customs Service in the past five years was Louis Vuitton. By item, watches and bags were copied the most, valued at 3 trillion won (US$2.64 billion) in total, according to a report dubbed “the current status of brands violating intellectual property rights from 2012 to 2016” from Park Myung-jae, an opposition lawmaker in the Liberty Korea Party who received the data from the Korea Customs Service on October 11.
The report said the Korea Customs Service found a total of 1,603 cases violating intellectual property rights worth 2.82 trillion won (US$2.49 billion) in the past five years.
In addition, most of the counterfeit goods were from China. A total of 1,342 cases of counterfeit brands worth 2.55 trillion won (US$2.24 billion), accounting for 90.3 percent of the total in terms of amount, were imported from China for five years until last year, followed by Hong Kong with 190.9 billion won (US$168.19 million), or 108 cases, and Japan with 33.6 billion won (US$29.6 million), or 44 cases.
During the same period, the luxury brand with the most incidence of counterfeit goods was Louis Vuitton worth 208 billion won (US$183.26 million), followed by Rolex with 195.1 billion won (US$171.89 million), Cartier with 146.7 billion won (US$129.25 million) and Channel with 144.6 billion won (US$127.4 million).