Tiffany Outlet bites the dust

Well, I’d LOVE to lay claim to this – seems that the shonky Chinese website I complained about, Tiffany Outlet, has bitten the dust. Actually, it looks like the real Tiffany is suing the asses off a ton of shonky commercial websites, not just Tiffany Outlet. I’ve been campaigning against Tiffany Outlet I admit – via this blog, via Twitter and so on. I still have the email address for Tiffany Outlet – must send them an email to say “looks like you’re toast”. But I’m sure I’m just one of many poor sods that were taken in by shonky counterfeiters.

This is what the website of Tiffany Outlet used to look like:

And this is what it looks like now:

Notice anything? Oooh yeah baby: looks like Tiffany Outlet has been served Notice and the site has been taken down. If you go to the site, you’ll see a whole host of legal documents. As someone with a law degree, I naturally waded my way through them to find the cause of action. And here’s the gist:

• The plaintiff, Tiffany (NJ) LLC, filed an action against various unknown business entities who operate websites that advertise and sell counterfeit jewelry allegedly bearing Tiffany’s registered trademarks;
• A number of these entities also incorporate “Tiffany” into their website domain names;
• It seems the named defendants (who appear in Schedule A) are caught within the Judicial District of Nevada – presumably because they were distributing or selling into that jurisdiction via interactive commercial websites;
• Willful and intentional infringement and counterfeiting of Tiffany’s trademarks allegedly took place in total disregard of Tiffany’s rights and have taken place despite the defendants knowledge that their use of Tiffany’s trademarks was and is in direct contravention of Tiffany’s rights;
• The defendant’s registration of several domain names, which incorporate at least one of Tiffany’s registered trademarks, constitutes cyberpiracy in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d); and
• Irreparable injury to Tiffany has been caused by the defendant’s unlawful activities.

There appear to be 223 defendants Tiffany is hot on the trail of. I checked out the websites of about 20 of them and they now all display the Notice To Defendants.

I need to look into this further and found out the current state of the lawsuit. But I just had to do a quick post because I’m very pleased that Tiffany is taking action against shonky Chinese counterfeiters. I think the cheap knock-offs we’ve all no doubt bought in China, Hong Kong, Thailand etc probably brought us momentary satisfaction but, let’s face it, denied the rights of the legitimate maker of the product. Time has come for the knockoff sites and counterfeiters to bite the dust.