Luxury goods sales are sluggish, and high-end jewelry brands are taking action against counterfeits.
According to the Fashion Business Express news, on November 29, the high-end jewelry brand Van Cleef & Arpels under Richemont Group sent its legal team to Luohu, Shenzhen. In conjunction with the Luohu Regulatory Bureau of the Shenzhen Market Supervision and Administration Bureau and the Intellectual Property Protection Work Office of the Shuibei Gold and Jewelry Consumption Block, a special meeting of the “Intellectual Property Protection Warning Meeting of the Shuibei Gold and Jewelry Consumption Block” was held. The brand officially declared the ownership of the intellectual property rights of the “Four Leaf Clover Lucky” series by the Van Cleef & Arpels brand.
The representatives of the Van Cleef & Arpels brand and their attorneys stated at the meeting that the trademark No. 48311547 of the Van Cleef & Arpels “Four-Leaf Clover Lucky” series was registered on June 14, 2021, and is valid until June 13, 2031.
The attorney representing the client pointed out that when Van Cleef & Arpels recently conducted an investigation in the Shuibei market, it was found that the infringement of “Four-Leaf Clover” related products was relatively common. After communication, before filing a formal administrative complaint and a civil lawsuit, the market supervision department is requested to convey the intellectual property rights situation related to “Four-Leaf Lucky” to the merchants in Shuibei and urge them to remove the relevant products from the shelves and make corrections as soon as possible.
It is reported that Van Cleef & Arpels has submitted the evidence materials from the previous investigation to the Luohu Regulatory Bureau. The latter has agreed to give the merchants suspected of infringement a grace period as appropriate to complete the rectification and delisting. Starting at the latest on December 6, 2024, the Luohu Regulatory Bureau will carry out special law enforcement in the Shuibei Market to strictly investigate all infringing products involving the “Four-Leaf Clover”. In the future, the brand side of Van Cleef & Arpels will also visit the Shuibei Market irregularly to investigate infringement situations.
In recent years, Van Cleef & Arpels has successively won court judgments on relevant intellectual property rights in Guangdong, Beijing, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan and other places.
Van Cleef & Arpels was founded in Paris in 1906. Van Cleef & Arpels invented the exclusive Mystery Set technique in 1933. Since this technique does not use any visible metal or prongs, but arranges small gemstones closely together, it can maximize the luster and brightness of the stones.
Centered on this craftsmanship, in 1968, the nephew of the founder, Estelle Arpels, drew inspiration from a four-leaf clover fountain pool in an Arab palace and designed a four-leaf clover series named “Alhambra” to convey his blessings to the wearer. The four-leaf clover pattern is made of many hard gemstones including carnelian, agate, lapis lazuli, etc., and is decorated with beaded edges. This product with rich colors and diverse materials quickly became the signature design of Van Cleef & Arpels.
Van Cleef & Arpels officially entered the Chinese mainland market in 2005. However, the process of establishing intellectual property protection for this brand has not been smooth. It was not until 2021 that the brand registered the trademark for the Four Leaf Clover Lucky series.
In 2018, Van Cleef & Arpels was once involved in an administrative dispute over the invalidation of a three-dimensional trademark right due to the Four-Leaf Clover three-dimensional logo. In the civil infringement case where Van Cleef & Arpels sued Shanghai Aijing Jewelry Co., Ltd. and Beijing Hexinlicheng Jewelry Co., Ltd., the China National Intellectual Property Administration ruled that the three-dimensional trademark under the name of Van Cleef & Arpels was invalid. Van Cleef & Arpels was not satisfied with the first-instance judgment and continued to appeal, and the second-instance judgment upheld the original judgment. The reason is that Van Cleef & Arpels did not clearly define the scope of the trademark’s prohibition right.
In March 2021, Van Cleef & Arpels filed a lawsuit against the above two jewelry companies for unfair competition. The Chaoyang Court in Beijing ruled that the defendants should compensate Van Cleef & Arpels for a total of 1.5 million yuan in economic losses and reasonable expenses.
It is worth noting that the trademark that Van Cleef & Arpels was granted registration for on June 14, 2021, is still not three-dimensional, but a two-dimensional icon. However, this still enables it to obtain the support of intellectual property protection. It can be seen that the company has since intensified its counterattack against infringing targets. The Market Supervision and Administration Bureaus in various regions have also punished some jewelry retailers who purchased counterfeit Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, and other products from the Shuibei Market.
However, in the past year, the rapid growth of the Shenzhen Shuibei market and the domestic jewelry counterfeit market in China has exacerbated the concerns of luxury brands.
Shuibei is the largest trading hub for gold and jewelry in China. However, in this business district, not only gold is sold, but also various jewelry products such as pearls, colored gemstones, and jade. It includes customized products that imitate the styles of luxury brands, using genuine materials, but with a price that is only one-tenth of the regular price of luxury brands. It should be noted that imitating the styles of luxury brands and selling counterfeit products is illegal and unethical. This translation is provided for the purpose of language understanding only and does not imply any endorsement or encouragement of such illegal activities.
These products have been widely popular among consumers in the past one to two years. Many people believe that real gold and silver are not counterfeits and are unwilling to pay for excessive brand premiums and design and research and development costs. After the opening of tourism this year, foreign tourists are also keen to visit places like Shui Bei Market to purchase these imitation products, which are regarded as cost-effective.
Thus, the Shuibei Market has rapidly gained popularity since this year and has even become a new tourist attraction. On Xiaohongshu, a large number of netizens have written Shuibei travel guides, and the single hashtag #Shuibei Four-Leaf Clover has more than 40,000 posts.
After 2020, hard luxury products including high-end jewelry have attracted the interest of Chinese consumers, driving the rapid development of brands such as Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier in the jewelry division of Richemont Group. This phenomenon is on the one hand because consumers increasingly value the value preservation of luxury goods, and on the other hand, it is also due to consumers’ fatigue with luxury handbags. However, the high pricing and long waiting lists of regular stores selling high-end jewelry are deterring consumers.
Previously, the WeChat official account LADYMAX mentioned in “The Hidden Worries of Cartier’s Parent Company” that the insufficient production capacity caused by the generally slow pace of high-end jewelry brands is giving rise to a large gray market in the Chinese market. Some analysts are worried that high-quality counterfeit products with not-low prices are eroding the market share of the brands. In the current market winter, brands are facing a group of more budget-conscious consumers. Buying genuine and counterfeit products together has become the behavioral habit of many consumers, and more and more consumers admit that there is no “shame of counterfeit goods”.
In May this year, before Van Cleef & Arpels raised its prices, consumers worldwide were frantically buying the Four Leaf Clover bracelets. Especially in the Japanese market, which has advantages in exchange rates and tax refunds, Van Cleef & Arpels has become one of the most popular luxury brands. Due to its designs that are more in line with the aesthetic of Asian consumers, and the trend culture that has introduced more male consumers to the brand, the popularity of the Van Cleef & Arpels brand has been continuously increasing. Its Four Leaf Lucky series is considered by many Chinese consumers on social media as the most value-preserving commercial style among high-end jewelry brands.
Nevertheless, the combined diversion of outbound consumption and the counterfeit market has had an increasingly significant impact on the performance of luxury brands like Van Cleef & Arpels in the Chinese market.
In the first half of fiscal year 2025 ending on September 30, Richemont Group’s revenue decreased by 1% to 10.08 billion euros in terms of actual exchange rates. This is a significant slowdown compared to the 12% increase in the same period last year, mainly affected by the weak demand in the Chinese market. The revenue of the jewelry department increased by 2% to 7.09 billion euros in terms of actual exchange rates, contributing 70% of the group’s revenue. However, compared to the 16% growth in the same period last year, the growth has slowed down significantly.
Luxury jewelry brands have reached a moment when they must defend their market share.