jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co. filed a lawsuit against the company Costco Wholesale Corporation, demanding to suspend sales of "fake engagement rings" and recover damages caused by illegal sale of products under the brand name Tiffany & Co. in past. According to Tiffany & Co., the wholesale company Costco is guilty of violating trademark rights, counterfeiting products, unfair competition, damage to reputation, misleading consumers and dishonest advertising, Rapaport reports. The amount of the claim is $ 2 million.
In response to the lawsuit Tiffany & Co. Costco stated that it was selling jewelry "in the style of Tiffany", defining it as a general term used for many years. The word "Tiffany" is a general term for determining the rings of rings. The defendants' lawyers claim that Costco sold unmarked Tiffany-style rings. In addition, unlike Tiffany's products in proprietary blue packaging, the rings distributed by Costco were packaged in ordinary beige gift boxes where the brand was not indicated.
Thus, the wholesale company refutes Tiffany's allegations of copyright infringement and requests the court to exclude in the future making any demands for the exclusion of the word Tiffany from the description of the appearance and style of jewelry as a general concept.