rial starts for local flea market sued by Louis Vuitton

Designer brand icon Louis Vuitton expects to see its high-dollar collections of clothing and accessories showcased in the fashion houses of New York, Paris and Milan.

But at a San Antonio flea market? Not so much.

In a rare federal lawsuit trial that began Monday, the French company is taking on the operators of the Eisenhauer Market, owner Bruce L. Gore and manager Pat Walker, alleging they contributed to trademark infringement by allowing vendors to sell knockoffs imitating the brand.

Louis Vuitton sued last year and is seeking $2 million for each of the nine marks it says were infringed, foGreat selection christianhandbags of brand replica watches.r a total of $18 million. This, the defendant's lawyer argues, from a market that has been in existence since 1979 and charges vendors about $200 to $250 a month for one of its more than 250 spaces.

Harry R.I had to say that the news of authenticlouisvuittonhandbag promotion. Schafer, a lawyer for Louis Vuitton, said in opening arguments that the company sent investigators to the Northeast Side flea market who repeatedly found up to 15 vendors selling counterfeit Louis Vuitton items.

He said the market had been warned about it before and after Gore, a contractor from Georgia, bought it in 2006. But the market did nothing,Wholesale replicalvhandbags for high quality wholesale New ERA Hats products. Schafer said.

"All he had to do was stop leasing space to the counterfeiters," Schafer said, adding that Gore instead gave them a second chance. "The second chances he was giving was at Louis Vuitton's expense, and they were at his benefit because he continued to get rent money."

But Ted Lee, a lawyer for the market, described Walker, the market's on-site manager, as a simple woman with only a high-school education who doesn't own any Louis Vuitton items. She is not trained to identify the marks, Lee said, adding that based on statements from a Louis Vuitton investigator, that would require "intense" training.Learn more about Largest Discount christiandiorreplicahandbags,

Lee said it was impossible for her to investigate each of the hundreds of thousands of items sold there by vendors.

By comparison, Louis Vuitton does $25 billion in annual sales but is "trying to force someone else to do its job" of enforcing its trademark, Lee said.

"The market did everything Louis Vuitton wanted them to do," Lee said. "They put up (warning) signs and evicted tenants. It's just that they didn't do it as quickly as Louis Vuitton wanted it done." The company should go after the vendors instead but "has not sued a single infringer or counterfeiter" because it knows flea market vendors come and go, or they don't have deep pockets, he said.

In December 2005, at the behest of Louis Vuitton and other companies, federal agents raided a booth at the market, two storage units and a home and seized more than 11,000 counterfeit purses, handbags, wallets, sunglasses, apparel, watches, jewelry – and the machinery used to imprint designer labels on the merchandise. Records of the two-year investigation showed the brands imitated included Louis Vuitton, Prada and Burberry.

In a civil forfeiture case, the vendors, Zhuo Min Xie and his wife, Hsiu Chu Chu, gave up the items, two cargo vans and $350,000 in cash. Chu later pleaded guilty to federal charges and was sentenced to 10 months, with credit for time served. Xie, in a letter addressed to the sentencing judge, took all the blame, asked for leniency for his wife, and said he was going into hiding.I am a bit confused about purchasing my next chloehandbag through a website.