Judge Doesn't Give Tiffany a Trademark Silver Spoon in eBay Flap

A New York federal judge ruled Monday in a lawsuit brought by Tiffany that the online auction site, eBay, is not required to police its site for counterfeited goods. "The law does not impose liability for contributory trademark infringement on eBay for its refusal to take such preemptive steps in light of eBay’s 'reasonable anticipation' or generalized knowledge that counterfeit goods might be sold on its website. Quite simply, the law demands more specific knowledge as to which items are infringing and which seller is listing those items before requiring eBay to take action," U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan wrote on Monday in a lawsuit brought by the upscale jeweler. The judge wrote that eBay escaped liability because it removed auctions for the jeweler's counterfeited goods when notified by Tiffany. "The court finds that when eBay possessed the requisite knowledge, it took appropriate steps to remove listings and suspend service. Under these circumstances, the court declines to impose liability for contributory trademark infringement," Sullivan wrote. The decision, however, contradicts a French court's demand last month requiring eBay to pay $63 million to Louis Vuitton, the luxury good maker that claimed eBay failed to police adequately its auction site for Louis Vuitton knockoffs. That contradiction notwithstanding, it's worth noting that Viacom, in it's pending $1 billion U.S. copyright lawsuit against Google, is making the same argument as did Tiffany. For its part, Google has argued a similar defense to Viacom's accusation that Google is an "unlawful business model." Google says it respects rights holders and complies with their take-down notices. In October, Google-owned YouTube announced a content-filtering system to make it easier for rights holders to police their copyrights on the popular video-sharing site. But that did not deter Viacom's lawsuit. Two weeks ago, a federal judge ordered Google to turn over records of every video watched by YouTube users, including users' names and IP addresses, to Viacom, which is suing Google for allowing clips of its copyright videos to appear on YouTube. Viacom wants the data to prove that infringing material is more popular than user-created videos. By Ms.Bobby Aanand, Metropolitan Jury.

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