Luxury fashion brand Gucci has warned stores in Hong Kong to stop selling paper handbags and other goods that resemble their products as offerings for the dead.

"In this instance, we fully respect the funeral context and we trust that the store owners did not have the intention to infringe Gucci's trademark," the company said in a statement emailed to AFP on Friday.

"Thus a letter was sent on an informational basis to let these stores know about the products they were carrying, and by asking them to stop selling those items," the statement said, adding that there was no suggestion of legal action or compensation.

"Gucci needs to protect its intellectual property, and does this across industries globally."

Traditionally, Chinese would purchase and burn paper replicas for their ancestors, especially during the tomb-sweeping day, which was on April 4 this year.

These paper fakes include a wide variety of goods, from paper false teeth, iPads and shirts, to chauffeur-driven cars, macaroons, mansions and wads of fake cash.