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Tiffany criticizes eBay during their opening statement |
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Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
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Thursday, 15 November 2007 |
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 In his opening statement, James Swire, a lawyer for Tiffany, said
eBay has been on notice since 2003 that counterfeit
Tiffany merchandise is being sold on the auction Web site and eBay has failed to
take the appropriate steps to keep people from selling such merchandise.
According to the Associated Press, Bruce Rich, eBay's lawyer, said the company is always working to improve its
efforts to root out sellers of counterfeit items and has responded when Tiffany
has specific complaints.
Mr. Swire said that 75% of 325 items advertised on eBay's Web
site that were purchased under a buying program Tiffany began in 2004 were
counterfeit.
Mr. Swire said,
eBay simply turned a blind eye. Because of that, it's liable for contributory infringement. Rich said eBay spends more than $10 million annually to clean counterfeit
merchandise from its site, which carries 6 million postings a day.
This is almost a standard procedure when suing for anything. You try to get the big companies liable and squeeze some money out of them if possible. If that doesn't work, go for the small guys.
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