Seventy-one perfect of Gen Z-ers in the U.S. have purchased a counterfeit good over the past year, while 84 percent of their Chinese counterparts have purchased a fake product in the past year, according to a new survey. In an effort to understand the attitudes and perceptions of Gen Z-ers in connection with counterfeit products (and intellectual property (“IP”) rights more generally), the International Trademark Association (“INTA”) polled 1250 Americans and 403 Chinese consumers between the ages of 18 and 23 and uncovered some telling insights on the state of the counterfeit economy. 

The Kylie v. Kylie fight has moved on from legal representatives for Kylie Minogue and Kylie Jenner. On the heels of a highly-publicized trademark showdown between the Aussie singer and the 21-year reality star-slash-makeup mogul, Minogue has been waging a fight against Saldum Ventures in an attempt to block the registration of “Kylie” for use of sunglasses by the Spanish company, which owns an growing array of e-commerce brands. 

The litigation spree that UGG’s parent company Deckers has initiated against the makers of lookalike UGG boots has a new case in the mix. Three years after filing suit against Target for allegedly offering up copies of UGG’s Bailey Button boots, Deckers has filed a new suit against Target, accusing the Minneapolis-headquartered retailer of copying the same trade dress and patent-protected boot and selling them in “bad faith.” 

Kanye West is angling to get himself out of the lawsuit filed against him by a fabric supplier for his Yeezy brand. Earlier this year, Japanese textile firm Toki Sen-I Co. filed suit against Yeezy Apparel LLC and West for allegedly failing to make good on a $600,000-plus contract they signed, and for operating Yeezy Apparel in a fraudulent way, namely, as “a mere shell and sham without capital, assets, membership interests, or members other than Kanye … intended, conceived [of], and used by Kanye as a device to avoid individual liability.” 

Gigi Hadid has been handed a win in the lawsuit filed against her early this year for posting a photo of herself on her Instagram account. According to the complaint, which was filed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York in January, Hadid “copied and posted” to her Instagram account a photo belonging to Xclsuive-Lee, Inc. “without license or permission from Xclusive,” prompting the photo agency to file – and ultimately, lose – a copyright infringement suit.  

Dolce & Gabbana is still “cancelled” in China on the heels of a questionable ad campaign from the Italian design house – featuring a Chinese model eating pizza with chopsticks – and subsequent backlash over racist commentary from one of the brand’s founders. While consumers in the West have not fully sworn off the Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana-founded brand, and in fact, some have seemingly forgotten the scandal altogether, “the impact of the crisis is still being felt in China, which is estimated to make up around a third of the brand’s total sales,” according to Gartner L2’s Digital IQ Index: Luxury China 2019. 

Amazon has caught the attention of European Union authorities, which initiated a formal antitrust investigation of the American platform this week. The European Commission – an EU institution tasked with proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the EU treaties and managing the day-to-day business of the 28 member state bloc  – is probing the Jeff Bezos-founded giant to determine whether its use of sensitive data from independent sellers on its massive third-party marketplace runs afoul of the EU’s competition rules.

Late last year, PopSugar’s #twinning app had a viral resurgence. The celebrity lookalike tool, which digital publisher PopSugar first released in early 2018, enables you to see what celebrities (out of a database of over 3 million) you look most like. All you have to do is upload a selfie, wait “about a minute or so,” and PopSugar’s algorithm ranks the celebs with which you share the greatest resemblance. That is precisely what hordes of people did – without ever reading the terms of service, which clearly stated that by submitting your photos, you granted rights to PopSugar to monetize, modify, and share them “in any media formats and through any media channels.”

Bill Gates is no longer the second-richest person in the world, per Bloomberg’s and Forbes’ respective billionaires lists; LVMH Moët Hennessy chairman Bernard Arnault is. 70-year old Arnault – who made headlines last month when his fortune topped $100 billion, thereby making him a centibillionaire, a position currently held by just three people in the world – has a net worth of $107.6 billion, putting him just ahead of Microsoft founder Gates, who is worth $107 billion. 

Anastasia Beverly Hills’ “hard candy”-colored highlighting powder is not likely to be confused with the products of a separate beauty brand that goes by the same name, a U.S. federal appeals court says. The nearly 25-year old Hard Candy filed suit in April 2016 in a Florida federal court after the buzzy Anastasia Beverly Hills released its limited edition Gleam Glow highlighter kit in December 2015, which consisted of four different peachy shades of facial highlighter, one of which was called “hard candy.”