eBay Beats Tiffany In Net Trademark Case

sm62704 notes a Reuters story reporting that eBay has beat Tiffany in court in a "knockout" decision. If this had gone the other way, not only would eBay be in trouble (especially after the loss of a similar case in France), but so would Net commerce as a whole. Tiffany seems certain to appeal. "All of Tiffany's trademark infringement claims against eBay were rejected — a knockout blow to the four-year-old lawsuit that had been closely watched by Internet companies as well as luxury goods makers seeking to stop the sale of counterfeit products online. Tiffany & Co. had alleged that eBay turned a blind eye to the sale of fake Tiffany silver jewelry on its site. EBay had countered that it was not in a position to determine which goods were knock-offs... and had said the jeweler did not adequately participate in eBay's programs that help brand owners prevent fraud. The judge... said he was 'not unsympathetic' to Tiffany and others who have invested in building their brands only to see them exploited on the Web. But he said the law was clearly on eBay's side."

Comments

Regular auction stats anyone?

[peektwice]

Does anyone know if Tiffany and Co. has sued any "brick and mortar" auction houses for this same type of thing? I suspect that there are any number of antique shops that routinely, perhaps unwittingly, sell fake Tiffany pieces.

How does the case compare with the French one?

[ulash]

Apart from the oblig. French jokes, does anyone know if the respective laws in France and the US regarding this matter are different enough to warrant the difference in verdicts, the interpretations of the judges are different, or the two cases are simply not that similar?

Re:How does the case compare with the French one?

[Anonymous Coward]

The france ruling effectively lets LVMH prevent the sale of it's brands on all websites. So no second hand market is allowed.

The US ruling says that Tiffany chose to sue eBay instead of the sellers and put little effort into the VeRO program.

LVMH and Tiffany are two of the most incompetent luxury brands when it comes to the internet. They make only a token use of the VeRO program and completely ignore intellectual property violations in some countries, which is why counterfeits are so abundant on sites like Hong Kong and Australia.

Other brands like Chanel are very competent and actually take down everything on eBay with the word 'Chanel' in it, including legitimate items that the seller put a half hearted attempt at listing. Try selling a Chanel item on eBay, you are likely to get it removed within hours by VeRO. If you try to sell a Louis Vuitton or Tiffany item ... if it gets removed at all it will be only after other eBay members lynch the seller using the "report this item" link.

eBay (itself) removes items suspected of being counterfeit, it does not have any information from Louis Vuitton about what to look for. The average eBay member reporting a fake LV or T&Co item knows more than eBay staff do. eBay staff (have to) stick to the "level playing field" mantra, and that means unless the rights owner reports the item, an item will only be removed if the seller fails to describe the item enough (in which it will be removed for being suspicious) or says too much and slips up.

Re:Tiffany should've hired some CoS lawyers

[ps2os2]

Yes that is interesting I agree. But on the other hand I can see the horde of lawyers being unleashed on EBAY. Whenever religion rears it *UGLY* head everyone runs for cover and poor EBAY would be out on a limb. I actually feel a little sorry for EBAY(in this instance only) they are in a truly no win situation. Religion is treated (like in other countries) differently in the US (I really don't care what side you are on). Some countries are nut cakes (and attract the same) and you couldn't get a honest verdict out of the justice system if you tried. Then you have the US where it comes down (in reality) to which judge you get on trial date. Sure there a few reasonably honest judges out there but probably less than we would think:( I hate to say this but probably when it comes to religion the jewish judges would be the best to hear any case to decide it on its merits and not on biblical leanings.

All Fake

[saihung]

I don't know. I'm kind of tired of doing a search for designer suits and finding page after page of obvious Chinese-made ripoffs. And to make matters worse, eBay makes you jump through hoops to report fakes - the "report" link goes to a FAQ page instead of a real report link. I actually wrote to eBay about this sub-optimal behavior, and they wrote back that they were under no obligation to listen to my suggestions.