(Fake) Lafite in China

I wanted to write about this a little while ago when we did the Rothschild case, and am finally getting around to it - I'm going to talk a bit about fake French wines in China.

Most notable, of course, is the Lafite wine. To put its popularity in perspective, the Chinese name for the legendary first growth –拉菲 – generates about 40,000 – 50,000 searches a day on China’s biggest search engine, Baidu.com. Interestingly in China, the name Lafite (拉菲) is not only used to describe the first growth grand vin, it’s also associated with other lesser brands under the (DBR) name. including the much cheaper Légende and Saga. But nonetheless, Lafite, has grown to be one of the most well known - and most often faked - wines in China.

Here are some of the top fake and misrepresented Lafite brands seen in China to give a sense of the counterfeit landscape.

1.

 

This wine called "Lafite Family" is marketed by a Shenzhen company in the south of China called Jinhongde Trade Co Ltd. DBR  took the Chinese company to court in 2011 for using the trademark “Lafite” and the five arrow symbol to confuse consumers and engage in unfair competition, 

The Changsha Intermediate Court ruled in favor of the first growth and awarded US$43, 621) in compensation as the first growth successfully argued that it has already registered its English name’s trademark in 1996 and its five arrow symbol in 2001.

2. 

Instead of using ‘Lafite’, this Lafite look-alike played on the Chinese transliteration of the first growth’s name and used the Chinese pinyin (phonetic symbols) for Lafite – "Lafei". Additionally, it’s worth noting that Lafite is still locked in a legal battle over the use of its Chinese name -拉菲 – with a Nanjing company. The French winery only applied for its Chinese name’s trademark in 2006, a year later than the Nanjing company who had already applied for the name’s trademark. The Chinese company was successfully granted the Chinese trademark in 2007 but Lafite later brought the case to China’s Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB), which ruled against the Chinese company in 2013.

3.

“Lafei Empire” is another example of wordplay on Lafite’s transliterated Chinese name in pinyin. Although bearing the familiar five arrow symbol on the capsule as well, the wine has no relations with the the actual Lafite.

These are just a few variations of the plethora of counterfeit brands in China. Even as someone with basic understanding of the authentic brand and French language in general, I still find it difficult sometimes to distinguish bona fide Lafite wine from knock-offs. Authenticity is one of the most important things about wine, and until that's well protected in China, it'll be hard for the sale of imported wine to truly take off

References

1. https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2017/02/top-fake-lafite-brands-found-in-china