Winners sets losing precedent for Primark in fake store furore

A clothing store in Bur Dubai has been trading under the same name and branding of Canadian budget retailer, Winners, for the past decade. It bodes illl for Primark, which this week threatened to take legal action against another shop faking its brand in Dubai.

The Winners store in Bur Dubai has the same logo that the Canadian retailer used before it rebranded. Satish Kumar / The National

A clothing store in Bur Dubai has been trading without authorisation under the same branding as a Canadian budget retailer for the past decade, boding ill for the British company Primark, which this week threatened to take legal action against a Dubai shop faking its brand.

Winners, a Canadian retail brand that sells end-of-season goods for up to 60 per cent off, has been copied for the past 10 years by Winners Dubai, situated on Mankhool Street, a stone's throw from the fake Primark store that opened on Bank Street on Monday.

The Winners store in Bur Dubai has the same logo used by the Winners in Canada before it rebranded in recent years, and the Dubai store also sells products with Winners-branded tags.

A dated-looking Canadian hockey jersey is pinned to the back wall at Winners Dubai and the store is packed with bobble hats, ski jackets and winter clothing.

"It is a Winners discount store. But as soon as I saw it I knew it was bogus," said Kevin Capozzi, a Canadian who in December bought skiequipment in Winners Dubai before a trip to Italy. "I probably saw more Canadian-made stuff in there than you see in Canada."

Winners Dubai is owned and run by an Iranian-Canadian, who declined to speak to The National.

Workers in the store said it did not claim to be part of the Canadian chain, which has more than 200 stores across Canada, but that the branding was the same. Winners in Canada could not be reached for comment.

The fake Primark store in Bur Dubai prompted the European retailer to seek legal action against the local company running the store, which is called Primark LLC.

Lawyers this week said the real Primark, which is owned by Associated British Foods, a listed British company, could seek legal action against Primark LLC even if the UK brand did not have a registered trademark in the UAE or Middle East.

But Dino Wilkinson, a partner at Norton Rose law firm, says one of the problems with intellectual property law in the UAE is that although the laws are in place, they are not enforced.

"There is a framework of legislation, and if you read it, it's compliant with treaties, but the problem is the framework and mechanisms for enforcement is not there," he said. "It's perhaps culturally different. [Intellectual property] rights do not have the same sort of value that they are given in the West, in the Middle East and Asia. People just do not see it as stealing or taking someone's idea."

The Dubai Department of Economic Development, which registered Primark LLC as a trading company, said this week it would not take action against the fake store because the Primark from Europe did not have a registered trademark in the UAE.

Winners was founded in 1982 in Toronto, Ontario, and is owned by TJX Companies, which operates TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods stores in the United States, Winners, HomeSense, Marshalls and StyleSense stores in Canada, as well as TK Maxx and HomeSense stores in Europe.

Primark is one of the biggest retailers in Europe and has a total of 235 stores in the UK, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal and Belgium.

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