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Costco Must Pay Tiffany $19M+

Published

7 years ago

August 16, 2017

INSTORE Staff

Costco said it will appeal.

Costco Wholesale Corp. must pay Tiffany & Co. about $19.4 million, a judge has ruled.

The award is the result of litigation filed against Costco three years ago claiming that the retailer was touting rings as “Tiffany” when they were not, The New York Times reports.

In 2015, a judge found Costco liable for trademark infringement and trademark counterfeiting.

Costco had defended itself by asserting that “Tiffany” is a generic term for a type of setting.

The Times reports that a judge in federal district court this week ruled that Tiffany is to receive “$11.1 million as profits for trademark infringement, plus interest, and $8.25 million in punitive damages, which was awarded by a jury in October.”

Tiffany said in a statement: “We brought this case because we felt a responsibility to protect the value of our customers’ purchases. It is critically important that the Tiffany name not be used to sell any engagement ring that is not our own.”

Costco said it intends to appeal. It said in a statement that the ruling “is a product of multiple errors in pretrial, trial, and post-trial rulings.”

“This was not a case about counterfeiting in the common understanding of that word — Costco was not selling imitation Tiffany & Co. rings,” the company stated.

Read more at The New York Times

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