Last month, Kenyan runner Geoffry Mutai ran the fastest marathon ever, taking the title of the 2011 Boston Marathon with a time of 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 2 seconds. Mutai’s time is a course record by nearly three minutes and the fastest marathon run by nearly a minute. Professionals in their craft need tools, and the tools of a marathon runner are the shoes on their feet. Longer distance running requires shoes that provide exceptional stability and comfort to help prevent the injuries that are all too common in the last miles of a marathon. However, I can assure you that the shoes worn by Geoffry Mutai and the 26,894 runners in the 2011 Boston Marathon aren’t the ones sold on this rogue site.

Handbagcom.com was one of the 82 rogue websites seized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in November 2010 as part of their on-going Operation In Our Sites initiative. However, like some other rogue websites targeted in the ICE seizures, this website continues to operate under an alternative, suspect domain name, www.nikelebron8shoes.com. Handbagcom.com offers knock-off “Nike” basketball, running, and other athletic shoes significantly below market value. The rogue site features indicia that may lead consumers to believe that they are buying a legitimate product. And why wouldn’t they? The operators of this rogue site use trademarks from Nike and images of professional athletes.

 

Thankfully, the diligence of U.S. ICE helped reduce this website’s ability to participate in the U.S. marketplace. However, the same can’t be said of foreign rogue sites that are continuing to operate in the online e-commerce ecosystem, facilitating intellectual property theft online, and stealing American jobs. Now is the time for Congress to broaden consumer protections in the online sphere and enact rogue sites legislation, such as the recently-introduced PROTECT IP Act, to cut off rogue sites from the U.S. market and leave criminals barefoot, running for cover.

Visit www.fightonlinetheft.com for more information on this project and the Campaign Against Online Theft.