Moskin Comments on Costco’s Appeal of $19.3M Counterfeiting Judgment

Partner Jonathan Moskin was quoted in a Bloomberg Law article, “Costco Appeal of $19M Tiffany Win Could Shift Trademark Law,” about Costco’s appeal of a $19.3 million trial court judgment against it for willfully deceiving customers into believing they were buying Tiffany rings.

Moskin said the Second Circuit Court of Appeals could take a “more nuanced approach” to the Lanham Act, which governs trademark law, than trial court judge Laura Taylor Swain did. Swain ruled that the act does not require a product to bear a trademark to establish counterfeiting.

“Just because she fairly rejected that evidence isn’t fully exculpatory; it doesn’t mean there’s not extenuating circumstances,” Moskin said. “There’s so little appellate law. This may well be an opportunity for the Second Circuit to provide a more refined analysis.”