Why businesses should be wary of going after eBay fakes
Published October 19th, 2007
The internet may not be completely lawless, but it does facilitate infringement of intellectual property laws on an unprecedented scale — and it’s not just teenagers downloading songs in their bedrooms who pose a problem. Businesses seeking to protect trademarks and patents are also facing huge challenges.
How do you stop infringement when it is occurring on such a huge scale? Some companies have gone after the intermediaries such as eBay, Facebook and internet service providers (ISPs), which provide the platform on which users can exchange goods and content so freely. In 2001, for instance, Rolex sued eBay’s German subsidiary for trademark infringement after it claimed the site was facilitating a trade in counterfeit watches. It lost. In 2004, Tiffany had more success, forcing eBay to remove counterfeit jewellery after it demonstrated that 73 per cent of the items sold on the site under the Tiffany mark were fake.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article2630267.ece
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