News
25.02.2010
Paris court awards Louis Vuitton damages against ebay
In February 2010, a Paris court awarded Louis Vuitton damages and costs in their trade mark infringement claim against eBay.
eBay was found to be harming the reputation of Louis Vuitton trade marks, the company and domain name. The dispute originated in 2006 when Louis Vuitton commenced proceedings against eBay for their purchasing of misspelled words similar to the Louis Vuitton mark from various internet search engines.
Although this is accepted business practice in order to direct web-traffic to their websites, the court held that by purchasing misspelled terms, eBay enabled counterfeiters to sell items on eBay. eBay defended their position by stating that it purchased the misspelled words as commercial links, redirecting consumers to their website to purchase genuine Louis Vuitton goods.
As brand-owners start to resort to the sympathetic French courts in the pursuit of controlling a brand’s image, reputation and status, this decision has currently tipped the scales in favour of brand-owners but the battle is far from finished.
