Diamonds & Engagement Rings News

Four years ago Ebay was taken to court by Tiffany & Co. for allowing Ebay members to sell fake brand name jewelry.

After being in legal battle for such a long period of time, Judge Richard Sullivan from the US district Court in Manhattan has finally ruled that Ebay had acted just fine.

Tiffany believes that Ebay is required to watch for trademarked and copyrighted material and should have removed it immediately. Ebay has disagreed and held that it was not liable for such listings unless the trademark proprietor itself reported it. Judge Sullivan made a decision that US law does not call for proactive removal.

The 66-page ruling is quoted: “The law demands a specific knowledge as to which items are infringing and which seller is listing those items before requiring Ebay to take action, the result of the application of this legal standard is that Tiffany must bare the ultimate burden of protecting its trademark.”

Another recent situation, which occurred this spring with a German court, that ordered the online auctioneer to ensure and stop the sale of fake Rolex watches.

Ebay feels that the Tiffany suit should have never happened and states, “While today’s decision is a victory for consumer choice, it is a shame that so much effort has been wasted when Tiffany could have worked with Ebay to more effectively fight counterfeits. Ebay will continue to lead the industry with innovative solutions to stop the sale of counterfeits.”

Diamond Prices have gone up yet again, pitching 12.3% in May. According to the IDEX Polished Diamond Price Index, the prices for the month of May have significantly exceeded prior months.

Large sized diamonds such as, three, four, or five carat stones have gone up to 47%, 64%, and 77%, topping the passed year by a great amount.

After having a stable market for about two months, prices soared on May 23rd and then again on may 27th.

There must be a major cause to such a great change to diamond prices and values. The U.S. own about half of the diamond jewelry produced in the entire world. When it happened to be that in the past the U.S. economy would slow down then the diamond demand also lessened making diamond prices diminish. This time the situation differs enormously. While the demand for diamonds was not as strong in the U.S. recently, the markets in all other countries around the world have been growing tremendously, demanding better quality and more diamond jewelry. At the same time, keeping diamond prices elevated.

Tiffany & Company is a perfect example of the drift of international markets. In the U.S. the sales of the company were doing poorly, while in all other countries, except for Japan, the demand for diamonds at Tiffany was very strong. The recent condition of the U.S. economy can be viewed as healthy for the industry rather than comparing it to global markets and viewing it poorly.   Â

Even with the economy at where it is now and being so weak diamonds really are still a girls best friend. Tiffany & Co’s U.S net sales for the fourth quarter gained 4% now that has got to be saying something.

World wide store like Tiffany’s strive with there sale of these luxury goods and it is believed that the will continue to stay just as strong; even with the economy being so weak.

 Shoppers still want there luxury goods such as diamonds and expensive handbags or jeans. These luxury companies all say that currently they are on top of there game and will continuing to do very well even as the economy falls.

The Softbank 823SH phone ranges in a lot of different colors and styles for bits of animals to diamonds.

Never a place of disappointment, Japan has been even odder than usual this week, with not just a platinum encased PC released, but also with a mobile phone.

People believe that the PC is just a publicity stunt and they doubt it even exist; however the phone covered in diamonds is actually for sale courtesy of Softbank Mobile.

Softbank is offering its Premium Texture 823Sh hand set for sale in a batch of 10.

The mobile phone is covered in 400 tiny lose diamonds from Tiffany Japan, making it more of a show piece and will most likely end up in a show case than in someone pocket.

More appealing, however are its less garish siblings that come with a choice of front panels made of everything from wood to pink crocodile skin.

Moshe’s comment: Does anybody care.

A lawyer for Tiffany & Co. accused eBay Inc. on Tuesday of allowing the sale of tens of thousands of pieces of counterfeit Tiffany jewelry on its Web site; an eBay lawyer responded that Tiffany wasn’t doing its share to protect customers.

The arguments in U.S. District Court in Manhattan came at the start of a trial to decide whether eBay can be blamed for the sales of silver Tiffany knockoffs on its Internet site since 2003.

James B. Swire, Tiffany’s lawyer, said eBay “simply turned a blind eye” to the sales.

Bruce Rich, eBay’s lawyer, said the site has suspended hundreds of thousands of sellers who broke its rules.

He blamed Tiffany for failing to protect its own trademarks by notifying eBay when it spots sales that seem suspicious. Rich said that when companies do so, eBay often stops the sales even before it can check whether they are legitimate.

In a 2004 lawsuit, Tiffany said it notified eBay a year earlier that thousands of pieces of fake silver jewelry were being sold as if they were genuine Tiffany products.

Swire said the company randomly bought 325 items being sold as genuine Tiffany jewelry on eBay’s Web site from among 280,000 listings related to Tiffany products. Of those, 75 percent turned out to be fake, he said.

He said there was no evidence that eBay did anything to stop the false sales after it reported its findings to the company.

Instead, he said, eBay supports sellers, offering marketing assistance that includes conducting seminars on how to grow the online jewelry business.

Rich said eBay spends more than $10 million annually to clean counterfeit merchandise from its site, which carries 6 million postings a day.

He said the company relies on the expertise of more than 14,000 copyright and trademark owners to find counterfeit merchandise.

“It cannot get it done by itself,” Rich said of eBay.

“We never see this merchandise. We don’t turn a blind eye to it,” he said. “We turn people over to law enforcement all the time.”

He said eBay’s success relies on creating a safe and friendly business.

“There are a lot of bad guys out there and eBay spends an enormous amount of money trying to keep up with it,” Rich said.