Interesting trademark case written up in the NYT

"Showroom Guilty in Counterfeiting Case" in the NYT concerns a furniture company that was ripping off a famous furniture making by couterfeiting her stuff and either selling it as the real thing and making a ton, or selling them cheap to you if you really wanted it but couldn't afford it at the "real" price. The plaintiff spent $900,000 in attorney fees to fight this battle. Damages have yet to be awarded, but it seems like such a case of bad faith on the defendant's part that hopefully the plaintiff will be awarded attorney fees as well as actual damages.

Judge Cohn found the firm and its two principals, Steve Turner and Janet Greenberg, liable for "common trademark infringement, unfair competition, false designation of origin and palming off."

Check out how determined this plaintiff was -

Ms. Corzine and her manager could not find an order from Ms. Plasky. Ms. Corzine, whose factory is in Mexico, said she received a tip that the Turner Greenberg showroom was diverting Corzine purchase orders to a factory in the San Fernando Valley. Ms. Corzine drove to that factory, and found it protected by a pair of guard dogs.

The next part had Ms. Corzine playing Nancy Drew. She befriended the dogs, "then I climbed onto the roof of my Range Rover, jumped over the fence and went in," she said. Inside, a couple began screaming at her in a language she did not understand. But before she left, she saw a Nancy Corzine catalog open on a counter. "That's when I decided to sue," she said.

That's better than most private eyes could do. Go git 'em tiger!

Via The Trademark Blog.