Jailed for fake Pirates towels

A MAN is to serve 16 months in prison for importing counterfeit goods.

The Provincial Court of Palma upheld the 16-month sentence pronounced on a shopkeeper convicted of crimes against intellectual property after he imported beach towels from China that copied the logotype of the Calvia ‘Pirates’ show.

The Court dismissed an appeal lodged by the shopkeeper against the ruling handed down by a Palma Criminal Court which sentenced him to spend one year and four months in prison and to pay a €3,600 fine.

The man was reportedly sent 1,584 cotton beach towels from China, which he intended to sell. The towels showed a skull with two sabres and a logotype reading ‘Pirates’, a trademark of a Balearic company that sells similar products at ‘Pirates Adventure’ in Malaguf.

The convicted shopkeeper – alleged to have made around €1,220 – claimed the trademark seen on the seized beach towels was not identical to that of the original goods because it had different colours. According to him, there was no objective risk of confusion because of the towels’ price and the fact that they were ‘a crude imitation.’

The owner of the trademark, however, saw it differently and said two experts confirmed the imported towels could indeed be mistaken for the original goods.