Owner of celebrity fave Aupen bags issued POFMA for multiple falsehoods on IG

SINGAPORE: Aupen is a brand of bags beloved by the rich and famous, including Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and Jennifer Aniston. Recently, however, the man behind the brand was on the receiving end of a correction notice from the Government of Singapore, which publicly rebuked Nicholas Tan for communicating false statements on his Instagram account earlier this month.

On Monday (Sep 22), Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong instructed that Correction Directions, under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), be issued to Mr Tan and Aupen for their publications, “which communicated false statements of fact concerning the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS)’s interactions with them, the stance IPOS takes towards local businesses, and the design of Singapore’s trademark laws,” the Law Ministry said in a press statement.

It specifically pointed to Mr Tan’s IG stories on Sep 9, his IG post on Sep 15, which was also on Aupen’s IG page, and another post on Sep 16.

“Mr Nicholas Tan and Aupen are required to publish Correction Notices on their Instagram pages. These notices will state that the content communicated false statements of fact, and provide a link to the Government’s clarification,” the statement added.

A check on the accounts shows that the POFMA order has been complied with, and the clarification issued by the Government on factually.sg says that the posts have been taken down.

What happened

The clarification says that Aupen faced a challenge from Target, a retailer in the US, against a trademark application in that country.

It said that Mr Tan communicated the following falsehoods:

• That he had been told by IPOS not to pursue a trademark dispute with the retailer in Singapore, as there was a high chance of losing
• That the city-state’s trademark laws are meant to protect foreign businesses and not local businesses
• That IPOS had said to him that legal reform to disallow bad-faith trademark registrations in Singapore would not be possible
• That IPOS provides support to foreign companies, not local companies, in their trademark disputes
• And that, in a statement from IPOS on Sep 11, it had flip-flopped on its advice to Mr Tan.

“The falsehoods in the Publications risk undermining public confidence in the strength of Singapore’s trade mark regime and the impartiality of IPOS as the administrator of the regime and the Registry of Trade Marks. Further, the falsehoods give the damaging and misleading impression that local businesses should not stand up for their intellectual property rights against foreign businesses,” it added. /TISG

Read also: YouTuber behind ‘Rip My Bag Challenge’ absolutely loves Aupen bag, but not its ‘PR gimmickry’