Costco Appeal of $19M Tiffany Win Could Shift Trademark Law

Costco Wholesale Corp. hopes to escape a $19.3 million judgment that it willfully deceived customers into believing they were buying Tiffany rings. Win or lose, it could create new case law on the definition of counterfeiting and calculation of trademark infringement damages.

The case presents a rare chance for a federal appeals court to parse the law’s broad, nebulous definition of counterfeiting—a more severe form of trademark infringement. Since most counterfeiting cases involve fly-by-night bad actors rather than established businesses like Costco, appeals are rare and case law is limited, lawyers told Bloomberg Law.

The warehouse giant’s appeal also could ...