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Costco is being insured for $21 million for Tiffany and Co., a federal appeals court said Monday.
Tiffany charged Costco in a 2013 trademark infringement lawsuit and forgery for Costco’s sale of diamond engagement rings that used the word “Tiffany” in advertising. A district ruled that Costco was later discovered and a civil jury awarded Tiffany more than $21 million in punitive damages and loss of profit.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected the ruling Monday, saying it agreed with Costco that “reasonable juries” may conclude that Tiffany “is just a logo name, but also a widely identified descriptive term for a specific ring flavor. “and probably confuse customers.
The court ruled that a jury, which a district judge, deserves to rule on Costco’s question of liability. The case will now be referred to the district court for a retrial.
Tiffany’s senior vice president and general counsel, Leigh Harlan, said the company was disappointed with the court’s decision.
“We continue to say that the District Court was correct at its location and that the location of the damages by the jury, which resulted in a $21 million refund for Tiffany and Co., is a transparent indicator of the strength of the Tiffany logo and the jury’s outrage at Costco’s actions,” Harlan said in a statement. “We have no qualms about retrialing this case, and we remain confident that a jury will locate the infraction and infraction in a retrial, just as the district court issued the originally decided ruling.”
The legal war between the two corporations began more than seven years ago, after a costco visitor contacted Tiffany and told her that she had seen engagement rings in the big store that were advertised as Tiffany’s rings.
Tiffany sent researchers to Costco and discovered a shop window containing engagement rings with symptoms bearing Tiffany’s name.
Tiffany then contacted Costco, claiming that the symptoms constituted forgery and forgery. Costco said that in a week he had disposed of all the symptoms of the word “Tiffany.”
Several months later, Tiffany sued Costco.