Judge Rules Tiffany Entitled to Costco's Earnings From Fake Rings
September 08 2015 - 7:53PM
Dow Jones News
By Maria Armental
Tiffany & Co. is entitled to Costco Wholesale Corp.'s
earnings from the sale of fake Tiffany engagement rings, a federal
judge ruled Tuesday.
The luxury jeweler is also entitled to punitive damages under
New York state law, Judge Laura Taylor Swain found.
Meanwhile, Judge Swain threw out Tiffany's claim that it was
entitled to an accounting of Costco's profit from sales of
memberships and other goods beyond the engagement rings in question
and capped how far back it can go in seeking recovery to Feb. 14,
2007, citing a six-year state statute of limitations for such
cases.
The companies are to resolve outstanding matters prior to a
pretrial conference scheduled for Oct. 30.
Tiffany filed the civil complaint on Feb. 14, 2013, after a
customer alerted the New York company that "Tiffany" rings were
being sold at a Costco store in Huntington Beach, Calif.
Costco countersued in March, saying the rings in question were
"unbranded rings having Tiffany settings" and argued that Tiffany
was a generic term for a type of ring setting. Judge Swain
disagreed, citing evidence submitted by Tiffany, including emails
sent by Costco jewelry buyers asking vendors to copy Tiffany
designs and testimony indicating that Costco employees "were aware
of customer confusion but did nothing to remedy it."
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 08, 2015 19:38 ET (23:38 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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