Over the past few months there has been a trade mark battle between a German arm of beauty company- Coty (who owns Davidoff) and Amazon. They were trying to stop Amazon selling unlicensed Davidoff perfumes online and claimed they are breaching trade mark rights.
Their trade mark rights were breached when they were seen to stock “its Davidoff perfume for third party sellers”. Coty owns brand rights in the EU. However the European Court of Justice (ECJ) noted that Amazon, storing trade mark infringing goods was not necessarily trade mark infringement.
As amazon is a market for third parties to sell products on, it is not themselves to blame to the selling of Davidoff and therefore they cannot be primarily blamed for infringement. Millions of people pay a fee and sell using amazon, most customers are unaware whether they are buying from amazon or an independent seller.
Following the preliminary ruling, the case has been sent to a German federal court.
Amazon is a safe marketplace for sellers, where customers can know they are buying legitimate goods. This is because amazon sets aside £398 million a year to tackle any intellectual property matters and fake goods.
If you are having trouble with trade mark infringement or wanting to register for a trade mark, contact the Trademarkroom team today.
Anna Orchard
