News
The laws of many countries are still playing catch-up with the growth of e-commerce, and nowhere has this been more apparent than in how different courts have ruled regarding the sale of counterfeit goods on eBay. "These cases demonstrate the fragmented state of the law regarding e-commerce as courts attempt to balance the need to take action to prevent blatant infringement with not placing an undue burden on online providers to monitor activity," says Dominique R. Shelton, a partner in the Intellectual Property Department at Wildman Harrold LLP (Los Angeles), who counsels clients on issues involving IP and emerging technologies. Shelton has analyzed two of these recent decisions, one by a French court (LVMH v. eBay) and one by an American court (Tiffany v. eBay) in an article that compares how these two jurisdictions are handling the issue. "The U.S. court recognized the extent to which any marketplace host can be responsible for the behavior of sellers," says Shelton. "While eBay was required to remove counterfeits when notified, the court held that it was ultimately the trademark owner's responsibility to police its trademark. By contrast, the French court held that eBay is liable for the behavior of sellers on its Web site. The French judges classified eBay as a broker, rather than an Internet host, which would have given eBay a degree of immunity." The article is available for publication. [08/28/2008]
Channel: Jaffe Legal News Service - Articles for Publication
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