Copyright Infringement - Designer Replica Jewelry - Online Retailer

Hello all... I own a successful online retail shop selling sterling silver cubic zirconia jewelry. I just received a cease and desist letter from a well known, high end jewelry designer asking me to remove a particular style (similiar but not identical, I'd say 70-80% silmilar) from my collection. This particular style is a great seller and I do not want to simply remove it altogether without knowing my rights first. Also, we have a clear policy listed within our store that we do not intend of infringement of any kind and that we will comply and work with any infringement claims that is brought to our attention.

We are merely a reseller and not a designer of any styles for sell within our collections. We do not request to have styles created to match designer styles. We simply purchase via wholesale from a manufacturer and resell. The style in question is a style in which our wholesale manufacturer has been selling for many years, long before we began purchasing it for our own use. It is also important to note that we do not claim this particular style is a designer replica piece either in the product's title or description. We have been selling this product for well over 3 years and have had well over $35k in sales from this style alone. Oddly enough, we had absolutely no idea this style was even a designer replica piece the entire 3+ years. Only up until we received the cease and desist letter did we realize this was similar to a designer piece.

My question is this.... Due to the fact that we are not the manufacturer nor did we take any part in creating this style, would this in fact make our wholesale manufacturer liable for this copyright infringement? When purchasing this item, we were never informed this was a designer style and truly thought it was "just a pretty style" with good response from our customers. Should we respond to the letter by turning over our wholesale factory's name and information?

We are stuck in a difficult situation as we don't want to make a rushed decision based on fear of being drawn into litigation and simply drop the style altogether. Yet, we are afraid that by responding and not removing the item (which is all they've asked for at this point), we will force them into taking larger actions by asking for sales data and damages.

Please help...

Many thanks upfront for any advice you can offer.

I have read everything you posted, and I am sorry for the situation. Frankly, this gets into some fine points of intellectual property law. You really cannot know how to best respond to this cease and desist letter without sitting down with a lawyer who can review the letter and compare your product to the design. If you go to the WLD main page, you could contact them for referral information to affiliated counsel in your area. Hope it works out. AJJ

I agree witht the poster above but both of you could be responsible if it is a copy of the other company's item, the manufacturer and the seller/you.

If you clearly show your role as an innocent purchaser I would guess the company would drop the matter as to you.

But an IP lawyer can tell you how close the item is to an illegal "copy"--if you are not sure yourself.

I'm almost sure that inorder for them to be able to sue you it has to say their brand somewhere on the item. If it's Tiffany's that sent you the letter, they send them to everyone. Thousands of letters for stupid stuff. Just an FYI.