Today my colleague Andrew Hill has written a column about the controversy surrounding internet suffixes — and the companies that exploit them — and reading it, I felt a startling sense of déjà vu. Yesterday I was at a Financo Retail Seminar listening to Chris Burch bemoan the exact same issue, though from a somewhat different perspective and in somewhat more colourful language.

Mr Burch, for those who don’t know, is the investor who started Tory Burch — the fashion company run by his former wife — and is in the process of launching nine, count ‘em, brands, including a luxury furniture department store (9 Christopher) and an accessible luxury concept store (C Wonder). The plan is to focus on the US, followed by Asia. Mr Burch is less keen on Europe, though he did say in his experience bad economic times were in fact good times to launch, and he is troubled by the internet situation.

To be specific: he was on stage complaining about the threat from counterfeiters buying up web addresses (toryburch.it, tburch.com, and so on) and offering fake branded goods. He said “there should be legislation”.