Rolex fights online sellers in TM claim
Watchmaker Rolex has taken on two sellers in a trademark infringement suit, accusing the pair of selling counterfeit goods on classified advertisements website Craigslist.
Rolex accused the two sellers, operating under the name Pretty Please, in a complaint (pdf) for counterfeiting and trademark infringement filed at the US District Court for the Central District of California on Thursday, January 5.
Watches made by Rolex are identified by the trade name and trademark ‘Rolex’ and one or more of the Rolex registered trademarks, such as ‘Daytona’, ‘Explorer’ and ‘Oyster’.
“Rolex has developed an outstanding reputation because of the uniform high quality of Rolex watches and the Rolex registered trademarks are distinctive marks used to identify these high quality products originating with Rolex,” said the claim.
In December 2015, Rolex’s investigator discovered that Pretty Please was selling counterfeits and infringements of the Rolex trademarks through Craigslist, according to the suit.
“Defendants listed the infringing watches as starting at $180, far below the retail price of Rolex watches,” added Rolex.
The watchmaker claimed that its investigator contacted Pretty Please by email and met one of the defendants in the carpark of a grocery store.
The defendant presented 12 watches of “various luxury brands”, including five counterfeit Rolex watches.
Rolex’s investigator said that the defendant explained that his wife was a flight attendant and often travels to China for work, purchasing counterfeit products there for re-sale in the US.
The investigator then met the defendant twice more, this time accompanied with an undercover officer.
In January 2016, the Orange County Sherriff’s Department obtained a search warrant and during investigation recovered 210 counterfeit items. The defendants were convicted of counterfeiting in April.
Rolex is seeking injunctive relief, statutory damages, triple damages and/or profits, compensatory damages, attorneys’ fees, investigators’ fees and costs.
This was first published on Trademarks and Brands Online.
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