Costco ordered to pay $19M for selling 'Tiffany' rings

Costco must pay jewelry company Tiffany & Co. more than $19 million for selling about 2,500 diamond rings falsely identified on store signs as "Tiffany" rings, a federal judge ruled Monday.

Costco's management "displayed at best a cavalier attitude toward Costco's use of the Tiffany name in conjunction with ring sales and marketing," U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain wrote in her opinion.

A jury in 2015 found that Costco had received a profit of $3.7 million from falsely using the Tiffany brand, rejecting Costco's argument that the word "Tiffany," with reference to a ring's setting, had become a generic term.

Swain ruled Costco should pay Tiffany $11.1 million plus interest, which is three times Tiffany's lost profit from Costco's actions plus $8.25 million in punitive damages.

Finally, Costco is barred from using the stand-alone word "Tiffany" to describe any products that aren't connected to the famous jewelry brand.

Tiffany said in a statement to CNN that the ruling "validates the strength of the Tiffany trademark and the value of our brand."

"We brought this case because we felt a responsibility to protect the value of our customers' purchases," the company said. "It is critically important that the Tiffany name not be used to sell any engagement ring that is not our own."

Business on 08/16/2017

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