By Kwon Mee-yoo
MCM beat Chanel and Louis Vuitton as the brand with the highest number of counterfeit items found in Korea last year.
The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced Monday its team caught 139 counterfeiters and confiscated 28,589 imitations, worth 14.5 billion won.
More than 4,680 imitations of MCM-branded bags were discovered among fake goods, making the brand the most popular among imitated luxury firms.
The company originally hails from Germany and was acquired by Korea’s Sungjoo Group in 2005. It has been repositioned to target a younger generation, mainly university students and working women since then.
Fashion accessories including bags were the most popular item among counterfeiters. Chanel (2,863 items) and Louis Vuitton (2,520) came next, followed by Gucci (1,779) and LeSportsac (1,181).
KIPO said the range of counterfeit items widened from clothing and bags to electronics such as memory cards.
Last year, the intellectual property authority uncovered a company which manufactured 3,179 memory cards pirating the trademark of America’s SanDisk and an electrically-heated mat maker infringing upon trademarks of local brands Hanil and Ilwoul. SanDisk was second in the number of imitations found by the squad.
KIPO will continue to investigate and expose incidents of trademark infringement.
"We will crack down on fake medicine and other personal care items intensively this year as these items could threaten people’s health," a KIPO official said. "We will also toughen penalties for circulating counterfeits online."