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MajorsJul 06, 2020
Tiffany Wins $12M in Case Against Counterfeit Sellers
The jeweler took on operators of websites allegedly selling knockoff Tiffany & Co. jewelry and sunglasses as well as other luxury items.
The Tiffany & Co. flagship store in Sydney. The jeweler was recently granted a $12 million default judgment in a trademark infringement case.
New York—A federal judge granted Tiffany & Co. a $12 million default judgment in a trademark infringement case against the operators of multiple websites said to be selling counterfeit items.
In a ruling handed down June 24, U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith of the Florida Southern District Court in Miami ordered the 12 defendants to pay $1 million each and give control of the websites over to Tiffany.
The jeweler filed the suit in December 2019, claiming sites with names like “tiffanyandco.net” and “tiffanyand.cn” were trying to imitate its website and mislead consumers.
Other sites, Tiffany said, redirected traffic from Google and other search engines away from the company’s official website, Tiffany.com, to their websites instead.
The defendants’ domain names (the name that identifies a website, like “Google.com”) were registered in multiple countries by “individuals, partnerships and/or business entities of unknown makeup,” said to be operating in foreign countries, including China.
Tiffany said in court documents that it “suffers ongoing daily and sustained violations of its trademark rights at the hands of counterfeiters and infringers.”
The jeweler said it spends a “significant” amount of money to enforce its trademarks and to “protect both consumers and itself from the ill effects of confusion and the erosion of the goodwill associated with the Tiffany brand.”
The court documents filed in the December 2019 case included hundreds of web page screenshots advertising “replica” and “knockoff” Tiffany sunglasses as well as “wholesale” Tiffany jewelry.
The websites also listed luxury goods said to be from brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton.
Tiffany has stamped or included “Tiffany & Co.” on its jewelry since 1868, according to U.S. Patent Office documents, filing for various trademarks for use on its jewelry and decorative objects over the years.
The jeweler also holds trademarks for its iconic Tiffany blue boxes and other packaging.
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