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Second Life, in its own words, is:
“. . . a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by over 200,000 people from around the globe . . .
You’ll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow residents. Because residents retain the rights to their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other residents.
The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world currency, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online currency exchanges. ” (emphasis added).
A Business Week profile on Second Life reports that it “could even challenge Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system as a way to more easily create entertainment and business software and service.”

American Apparel, will now open a virtual store in Second Life. (screen shots courtesy of the store’s designer, Aimee Weber.
At the same time, people are apparently selling ‘items’ in this virtual world bearing recognizable trademarks. Pop-PR and Scobelizer give examples. Pop-PR notes the American Apparel opening and opines that:
If corporations are going to begin launching officially branded SL products in the game, if there are already trademark infringements, that is going to impede companies from going in to the SL universe.
So Scobleizer asks “Can trademarks be defended in Second Life?”
I think the answer is “probably” as long as it remains within Second Life’s interests to defend trademarks.
I was interviewed for this article in The Guardian that discusses some of the issues involved. The important point is that the users of Second Life enter into terms of service agreements. This gives SL the power to enforce trademarks. Other ‘intermediaries’ such as Verisign, Google, EBay have adopted varying models of how they go about it, but they certainly can ‘take down’ the most egregious infringements.
However if an avatar beckons you from a darkened virtual doorway, pulls up his virtual sleeves to reveal six virtual watches on each virtual arm, and a text balloon says ‘Hey buddy, would you like to buy a watch real cheap?,’ then enforcement in that case may be more complex.

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NY Times: ‘Smiley Face Is Serious To Company’ Story of the Loufrani family, which owns trademark registrations to the ‘smiley face’ around the world. If you have tiume to kill, you can go to TTABVue and use ‘Loufrani’ as a search term, to pull up dockets for its various oppositions against the likes of Wal-Mart.
The article claims that the smiley face was created by Harvey Wall in 1965 (and doesn’t credit Forrest Gump). Loufrani reportedly filed in the U.S. in 1997, Wal-Mart reportedly used the mark in 1996.

We have previously noted how the ‘clash of civilizatiions’ manifests itself in small part as reactions against Western brands (MECCA Cola and QUIBLA Cola, and the RAZANNE Doll).
However, as illustration of unintended consequences, I suggest that but for Al Queda and the Taliban, there would not be a Starbucks in Kandahar (albeit an unauthorized one). HT Ann Althouse.

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Europe By Net takes orders for designer furniture through its catalog and website, apparently fulfills these orders by buying at retail in Europe, and ships them to the customer. It still, reportedly, can beat U.S. retail prices for those items. Europe By Nets’ website claims that some of its prices are 20 to 30% below U.S. retail. For example, the Flexform sofa depicted above is advertised at $7066, compared to $11,192 US retail.
Europe By Net is now asking the EU to investigate whether five Italian furniture manufacturers are engaged in a campaign of slander and price-fixing, making it more difficult for the comany’s Web site to advertise its service and sell its items. Via NY Times.

Today’s Wall Street Journal has a profile on Old Navy, page B1, entitled “Silk and Leather At Old Navy?” In noting Old Navy’s attempts to raise some of its price points, the article stated that:
“. . . Old Navy designers looked at jeans from high-end brands liken Seven for All Mankind and Citizens for Humanity, which sell for more than $100. They took the garments apart, examined the stitching and fabrics, then asked Old Navy’s factories to create something similar. The result, called ‘special edition’ denim, will sell for $36.50 to $49.50 . . .”
I ran that by Barbara Kolsun, general counsel of Seven For All Mankind, who responded: “Old Navy should hire creative designers who don’t have to copy our designs and fits.”

WSJ (no free online version): “What happens when an eBay steal is a fake”(“The counterfeit market has become a major headache for the luxury-product industry — and for unwary consumers. Our reporter finds out what recourse people have when they buy fake goods through an online auction.”)
Four out of the five designer items the reporter purchased for the article turned out to be certainly counterfeit and the last one probably was as well. Two sellers provided refunds, eBay provided partial refunds on two others.