Lawyers for two famous clothing brands never thought that a few suspicious shirts would lead them to a legitimate-looking Manhattan apparel company with a professional showroom. But that’s just what attorneys for VF Corporation (which makes The North Face line of outdoor gear) and Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation found when they raided TC Fashions Inc. last fall. Though TC denies that it was selling counterfeit items, a federal judge has already entered a preliminary injunction against the company. PRL and VF now expect the injunction to be made permanent as the result of a tentative settlement reached with TC in May.
G. Roxanne Elings, a Greenberg Traurig partner who serves as outside counsel to PRL and VF, led the raid on TC’s Manhattan offices. “This is one of the largest operations I’ve seen in my 15 years [working on counterfeiting],” says Elings, who has been on more than 100 raids and represents about a dozen apparel companies.
