Silk market appeals ruling

Beijing’s silk market, which is infamous for selling pirated designer clothing, has appealed against a court ruling requiring it to compensate some of the world’s top luxury brands, the Financial Times reported. A local court last month ordered the market owner to pay US$6,200 to Burberry, Chanel, Gucci, LVMH and Prada for not halting the sale of fake goods under these brands. The ruling threatened to alter the landscape of China’s intellectual property rights battle – lawyers claimed it set a precedent that market landlords could be held accountable for the actions of their stall-holding tenants. However, the market claimed it tried to expel the tenants responsible and conducted anti-piracy training.