Command centre for the LVMHcampaign to protect its luxury brands in the wild west of the internet is the wood-panelled ninth floor of an imposing building on Paris's Avenue Montaigne, with a view over the Seine to the Eiffel Tower.

Here Pierre Godé, senior executive vice-president of LVMH, whose remit includes corporate strategy and digital matters, spends his days assembling a modern arsenal of diplomacy and lawsuits in an attempt to enforce the same guidelines in the virtual world as in the real one. After all, if street vendors selling fake Louis Vuitton bags or Dior perfumes are a thorn in the luxury group's side, then how much more insidious are the here today, gone tomorrow online merchants? And what about search engines that allow anyone to use a brand name in an advertisement?

Or so LVMH believes, to the extent that it has taken legal action against two of the internet's biggest players, Google and Ebay. The internet companies have both legally begged to differ.