Costco ordered to pay damages over counterfeit Tiffany rings

Wholesaler Costco has been told it must pay an initial sum of $8.2 million to jewellery company Tiffany for unlawfully using its trademark on rings.

In the ruling (pdf), handed down yesterday, August 14, US District Judge Laura Swain also said that Tiffany is entitled to recover $3.7 million as profits for trademark infringement, tripled, if it does not instead elect to recover statutory damages.

The jewellery company is already entitled to recover the punitive damages worth $8.2 million.

The ruling stems from a complaint(pdf) made by Tiffany in 2013 in which it stated that Costco had unlawfully used the Tiffany trademark on rings and sold them at a lower price to attract customers.

It stated that this was part of a wider “aggressive marketing” campaign to sell various jewellery brands at a lower price.

“Costco counterfeited the Tiffany trademarks for the sole purpose of misleading its members and creating a false impression about the rings,” the complaint added.

Swain also granted Tiffany a permanent injunction preventing Costco from using the ‘Tiffany’ mark as a standalone term.

Tiffany owns a variety of trademarks for use with rings, including number 133,063 for the ‘Tiffany’ name, first registered in 1868, and 4,018,341 for the ‘T & CO’ trademark.

In a statement, Costco denied any wrongdoing and said the ruling is a “product of multiple errors in pre-trial, trial and post-trial rulings, and intends to appeal”.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox

Today’s top stories:

USPTO invalidates Crocs clog design patent

BT and Valve patent clash dismissed

Trump asks USTR to assess options over Chinese IP theft probe