eBay's Legal Victory May Help Other Sites
Jul 15, 2008
After losing a similar trademark battle in France only two weeks ago, eBay had reason to celebrate yesterday when U.S. District judge Richard Sullivan sided with the company in its longstanding dispute with Tiffany & Co. over who should be responsible for policing counterfeit merchandise in the online marketplace.
Unlike the French court, which ordered eBay to pay luxury goods giant LVMH over $60 million to compensate it for trademark violations, Judge Sullivan ruled that eBay had done enough through its Verified Rights Owner program to deter the sale of counterfeit goods on its site, concluding that "the law is clear: it is the trademark owner's burden to police its mark."
As Declan McCullagh wrote in News.com, while Tiffany may appeal the ruling, "for now...the decision relieves eBay--and companies such as Amazon.com, Yahoo and Google that provide auction listings or product search results--of what would have been a significant financial burden and legal uncertainty."
The full News.com article is available here, and eBay issued the following statement.
Tags:
Amazon.com, counterfeit, eBay, ecommerce, Google, intellectual property, trademark, Yahoo
