You are tearing around your local shopping mall desperately looking to buy a birthday gift for a significant female in your life. You spot what appears to be a very nice quilted Chanel tote bag for $75. You hesitate. Seems rather affordable for a luxury brand but then again the sales assistant did seem very genuine, assuring you that all their merchandise was "real". Later on as you gingerly proffer the gift you observe a gamut of emotions. The expression on her face changes from that of eager anticipation to an incredulous frown, to a look of abject disgust. She realizes the gift is nothing more than a cheesy knockoff.

You’re not the only one who could be in hot water. Companies with protected trademarks in high-end luxury brands are now going after the landlords of markets and shopping centers when tenants engage in the sale of counterfeit goods.

Counterfeit reproductions are imitation goods which deceptively represent their content and origin and commonly display fake labels of real trademark owners. The idea is to fool consumers into believing that the goods are genuine and this results in substantial losses to companies who have invested time and expense in the development and marketing of their products.