Costco to Pay Tiffany & Co. $5.5 Million in Trademark Case

A federal jury has concluded that Costco Wholesale Corp. should pay Tiffany & Co. $5.5 million for selling diamond engagement rings bearing Tiffany’s name. The $5.5 million represents the amount of profit Costco made from the sale of the rings — 2,500 in total — according to the jury. However, at the trial’s beginning, Costco argued that the maximum amount it owned was only $781,000.

Total Retail’s Take: Tiffany’s name goes hand-in-hand with engagement rings. Costco had to know what it was doing when it used the Tiffany name for its jewelry products. U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain argued that Costco's jewelry buyers had asked vendors to copy Tiffany designs. Costco confused its consumers, and that's not a good look.