News

A federal jury in Manhattan today awarded to Ellis George client, Tiffany & Co., and against defendant Costco Wholesale Corp., punitive damages of $8.25 million. The jury’s punitive damages award will be tacked on top of last week’s award of Costco’s wrongful profits, making the total judgment $13.75 million before the addition of attorneys’ fees and the trebling of profits under the trademark law, which will be the subject of post-trial briefing. The verdict follows nearly four years of contentious litigation over Costco’s use of the iconic “Tiffany” trademark in conjunction with ring sales at Costco.  Lead trial counsel for Tiffany and Ellis George partner, Jeff Mitchell, remarked:  “The jury obviously sent a message to Costco by its award of punitive damages.  Costco’s lawyer told the jury his client was taking responsibility for what it had done, but throughout the trial blamed unsupervised junior employees and small outside vendors for what had happened, even though the evidence suggested senior management knew about and had condoned Costco’s practice of using the Tiffany name for years.”  Assisting Mitchell in the case and at trial were Ellis George lawyers Judith Cohen and Brett Katz.