US court decides ebay sells counterfeit goods without infringing trademark

Beijing Time April 2 news, according to foreign media reports, the United States, New York's Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Thursday ruled that although the ebay website does sell counterfeit Tiffany products, but ebay has not violated Tiffany's trademark rights. The Court of Appeal, however, supported Tiffany's accusations that ebay was making false propaganda in the ads.

The issue of selling counterfeit products on ebay for luxury brands such as Tiffany has been the focus of controversy. Ebay said the counterfeit products were not offered on the shelves by ebay, and ebay has spent tens of millions of of dollars to crack down on counterfeit products and withdraw them.

The case is seen as a challenge for internet companies such as ebay and Google. Both ebay and Google say that they are only providing services, and that any infringement of trademarks is done by others rather than by themselves. Last month, Google won a similar patent lawsuit in the European Union.

Last year, the panel of judges of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York analysed the defence of both the plaintiff and the accused, and made a ruling in Thursday. The case dates from the earliest 2004 years.

"ebay does not personally sell Tiffany's counterfeit products, which is a deceptive business, which is one of the reasons we think ebay has not violated Tiffany's trademark," the Court of Appeal said. However, ebay does advertise these products as real Tiffany products. ”

Tiffany accuses ebay of false propaganda, because many of the Tiffany products sold on ebay's website are counterfeit products. The appellate court dismissed the decision of the District court that the ebay ad would not mislead consumers.

"According to the law, we believe that ebay should be responsible for propaganda that has so far been misleading or confusing among consumers," the court's verdict said. ”

In a statement, ebay said the case's decision was a confirmation of ebay's efforts to crack down on counterfeit products, and that ebay would correct false propaganda. ebay does not endorse the legal approach to such issues, saying: "We have always wanted cooperation, not litigation." ”

Tiffany said it was considering appealing the case to the United States Supreme Court, saying the verdict "sets a precedent for ebay to take advantage of the sale of counterfeit products".

At the end of 2007, Richard Sullivan, a U.S. District Court judge, Richard Sullivan a lawsuit against ebay for infringement of trademark rights. In July 2008, Judge Sullivan ruled that although ebay allowed businesses to sell counterfeit products on its website, it did not infringe on Tiffany's trademark rights. After that, Tiffany appealed.

The appellate court found that EBay had "taken effective incentives to minimise the problem of counterfeit products on its website". And Tiffany countered that ebay would only take incentives to prevent the sale of counterfeit products when they caught their attention.

In defending the court, ebay said it had spent 20 million of billions of dollars on counterfeit products on the site, including a buyer's protection program that specifically assigned employees to deal with infringement issues.