Tiffany Fights Losing Battle Against Inevitable Change
Sui Generis–a New York law blog:
This week’s Daily Record column is entitled "Tiffany Fights Losing Battle Against Inevitable Change."
A pdf of the article can be found here and my past Daily Record articles can be accessed here.
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Tiffany Fights Losing Battle Against Inevitable Change
“Ahh… Do I detect a look of disapproval in your eye? Tough beans buddy, ‘cause that’s the way it’s gonna be.”
—Holly Golightly in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”
Like many large, traditional companies, the jeweler Tiffany & Co. made the puzzling choice to engage in a protracted and expensive legal battle rather than simply accepting and adapting to the technological changes in the worldwide marketplace.
Four years ago, Tiffany filed a lawsuit against eBay, the online auction giant, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Tiffany alleged its trademark was violated when eBay permitted sellers to list potentially counterfeit Tiffany items for sale.
Last week, following a non-jury trial, Judge Richard J. Sullivan issued a ruling in favor of eBay, concluding “[i]t is the trademark owner’s burden to police its mark and companies like eBay cannot be held liable for trademark infringement based solely on their generalized knowledge that trademark infringement
might be occurring on their Web sites.”
Judge Sullivan’s decision, hailed as an important victory for online retailers, was in keeping with the vast majority of U.S. decisions on this issue.
Not surprisingly, instead of accepting defeat gracefully and vowing to find ways to make innovative platforms such as eBay work to their advantage, representatives of Tiffany indicated the company
would most likely appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
In other words, rather than allocating resources so the company can adapt to the ever-changing online marketplace, Tiffany is planning to expend more…