In a load of football knit caps, Monamie boutique owner Lal Keswani overlooked the ones that didn't have the official NFL labels when he purchased them from a dealer in Washington, D.C.
Fairfax County Police are investigating Keswani's supply of apparel bearing various team names as possible counterfeits of a registered trademark. On Friday, Jan. 16, police confiscated the property along with similar merchandise from several other stores at Springfield Mall.
Keswani said he was deceived as well.
"I just saw the team, and I bought it," he said. "You can't tell if it's counterfeit. Some had the labels and some didn't."
MONAMIE WASN'T THE ONLY store under investigation for this offense. On the same day, police obtained a search warrant for Fashion Mechanics and applied for search warrants for mall stores 2 Excess and Blue Gene's, for allegedly selling merchandise displaying counterfeit official marks.
An affidavit for the warrant to search Monamie stated that a Fairfax County detective, Scott MacCaskill, met with Wayne Grooms, who works for Blazer Investigations and specializes in the investigation of intellectual property cases. Grooms said on Jan. 12 that he saw suspected NFL ski caps for sale in the store. Police confiscated 10 different kinds of football and basketball hats, and baseball and football medallions.
At Fashion Mechanics, the officers confiscated shirts, pants, a watch, socks, a necklace and a buyer's directory, according to the search warrant. In addition to the sports-related materials, police confiscated cartoon character items.
The owner of 2 Excess was the only one charged so far in the case, according to police spokesperson Jacqi Smith. Selling counterfeit merchandise is a Class 2 misdemeanor of trademark infringement, 59.1-92.12 in the Trade Commission Code.
"They'll confiscate all the products in violation of the trademarks," Smith said. "It's just the store that gets charged. CD conspiracy is more common than the copyright infringement."
The other owners are still under investigation, according to Smith. Franconia Station officer Jim Redfield said that police confiscated suspected counterfeit CDs at the mall last November.
Dan Masonson, NFL spokesperson, said that the copying of trademarked goods is an ongoing problem. "It's something that we've cracked down on every year," Masonson said.
"We have people out there looking at the merchandise," he said. "They'll be out in full force with the Super Bowl. There's a special Super Bowl hologram seal."
THE UPCOMING SUPER BOWL is a big day on the counterfeit circuit. With more than $100 million in potential NFL trademarked items for sale, Masonson thinks that the NFL is ready for the violators.
Paul Bresson, FBI spokesperson, said the FBI gets involved in these types of cases when there is a large amount of goods or an international link. Since the FBI has been involved in more Homeland Security issues in recent years, it leaves most of these cases to local jurisdictions to handle.
Bresson remembered a recent case, though.
"He [the suspect] had warehouses full of sports equipment," Bresson said. "Our mission now is geared toward terrorism."
"If there's a guy on the corner selling sunglasses, I don't think we'd get involved with that," he added.
Someone can sell sunglasses that could be considered knockoffs, or replicas of name-brand merchandise, as long as the products just look similar and are not labeled. In such a case, that person is not using a registered trademark or copyrighted material.
Lawrence Barry, the FBI spokesperson for the Richmond Division, said that the FBI doesn't have the resources to address these cases, either, but he has seen some occurrences of copied designer clothing, CDs and videos.
"Anything they think they can sell, they'll copy," Barry said.
SOME MERCHANDISE on sale at Springfield Mall could fit the knockoff description and not infringe on a trademark or copyright.
In Gadzooks, Qiana Gidron sells purses for $26 that look like Louis Vuitton purses, which can cost up to $1,000. They have no labels or initials like the real purses.
"They look like the real thing," Gidron said.
Rave sells "Precious Secrets" perfume, which has a claim on the label that states "Compare to Tommy Girl," a Tommy Hilfiger perfume.
"It smells exactly like it," said Amanda Thomas, who works at Rave and lives in Washington, D.C.
Around Thomas' home, she sees the street vendors selling knockoffs.
"Street vendors sell them," she said. "Most people can't tell the difference. When I was in high school, I'd buy the fake stuff. Nobody can tell."