A group of websites have supposedly been promoting, advertising and selling jewellery with Tifffany Marks on them, despite their goods not being genuine Tiffany products
Tiffany sues websites for infringement
Posted January 25, 2011 | By Sonia Nair
Luxury high-end jeweller Tiffany & Co has filed a lawsuit on three counts against a group of websites.
Tiffany & Co is suing a group of websites that include TiffanyMail.us, TiffanyOnSale.com, TiffanyShop.org and TiffanySilvers.org for alleged trademark counterfeiting and infringement, false designation of origin and cyber-piracy.
Defendants Ge Wang, King Wang and Ning Zhou, as well as other unnamed offenders have been charged.
The law suit, which was filed on December 20, 2010, said the defendants are individuals and business “who likely reside in the People’s Republic of China [who] conduct business throughout the United States”.
Tiffany discovered that the defendants were allegedly promoting, advertising and selling jewellery with Tiffany hallmarks on them, when in fact their products were not genuine Tiffany goods.
“The net effect of defendants’ actions will be to result in the confusion of consumers who will believe the counterfeit goods are genuine goods originating from, associated with, and approved by Tiffany,” Tiffany said.
The accused websites are no longer operational and have the serving notice on their homepages.
Tiffany is seeking injunctions against the defendants to stop them from selling counterfeit Tiffany goods and monetary relief of $US2 million for each counterfeit Tiffany hallmark used and sold as well as $US100,000 ($101,030) for each pirated domain name used.
A hearing is scheduled for February 1.
This case follows Tiffany’s recent loss against eBay after a six-year battle over alleged trademark infringement and false advertising.
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