Intellectual Property Law

Seattle eBay Seller's Lawsuit Against Coach Gets National Attention

By Michael Atkins

Lots of media attention for Gina Kim’s class action lawsuit against Coach, Inc.

She says she used to work for Coach, had accumulated a few Coach handbags, and tried to sell them on eBay.

Ms. Kim says Coach accused her of selling counterfeit product and convinced eBay to pull her account. All without investigating whether her handbags were real or fake. So she sued for a declaratory judgment of noninfringement and for tortious interference with her relationship with eBay.

She now represents a class of persons she says have likewise been strong-armed by Coach.

AP story here; WSJ Law Blog post here.

It’s shameful if what Ms. Kim says is true. No matter how prevalent counterfeiting has gotten online, brand owners simply can’t assume all online sales of their goods are counterfeit. Accusing first and asking questions later just isn’t good policy. It’s against the law and suing innocent owners of the brand-owner’s product can’t be good for business.

Of course, Coach probably has a very different view of what allegedly happened.

We’ll see as the lawsuit unfolds — assuming it isn’t quickly settled.

Full post as published by Seattle Trademark Lawyer on February 17, 2011 (boomark / email).