29/11/2021 - Intellectual Property: the law firm Adam-Caumeil advises in a counterfeiting case against a major jewellery group
A look back at a recent case won by the firm against a major jewellery group in a dispute over possible counterfeiting.
A look back at a recent case won by the firm against a major jewellery group in a dispute over possible counterfeiting.
Following a seizure in a jewellery store by one of the Group's companies, the latter had initiated proceedings accusing the suppliers and the jewellery store of having sought to copy some of its most emblematic ranges.
For our part, we defended one of these suppliers.
We first disputed the original and innovative character of the imitated model, refuting the thesis of confusion between the jewels, and at the same time defending the different artistic orientation of our client.
The court had to determine whether the Group had an intellectual property right in the jewellery. For this, the work must be original and bear the stamp of the author's personality.
In this case, the central motif is a fawn, which has been a mainstay of the jewellery industry for several centuries.
In this context, the Court found that the combination of known elements does not prevent a work from being original.
Important point...
Infringement is based exclusively on similarities and not on differences. On the other hand, there is no infringement if the similarities are close to a genre, but do not reproduce the specific characteristics of the original work.
