Gemveto Jewelry Co. v. Jeff Cooper Inc.

694 F. Supp. 1085, 227 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 623, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10314, 1988 WL 94939
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedSeptember 14, 1988
DocketNo. 81 Civ. 3447 (KC)
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 694 F. Supp. 1085 (Gemveto Jewelry Co. v. Jeff Cooper Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gemveto Jewelry Co. v. Jeff Cooper Inc., 694 F. Supp. 1085, 227 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 623, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10314, 1988 WL 94939 (S.D.N.Y. 1988).

Opinion

OPINION AND JUDGMENT

CONBOY, District Judge.

The complaint in this action was filed on June 4, 1981. The subsequent duration and course of the litigation has been extraordinary. The civil docket sheet in the matter reflects almost two hundred entries, approximately one hundred fifty filings, and thirty separate orders entered by the District Court. The late Honorable Edward Weinfeld presided over two trials in the case, a Magistrate conducted proceedings on motions between the two trials that lasted for almost a year, and an appeal was litigated in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

BACKGROUND

The parties in this action are manufacturers and sellers of high fashion jewelry, and are in general, though not in direct, competition. Gemveto’s customers include [1086]*1086the nation’s leading upscale jewelry retailers, such as Tiffany, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpéis, its pieces are generally 18 carat gold, and its gemstones are of the highest quality. Cooper's line of jewelry is more moderately priced, is generally of 14 carat gold and its gemstones are of a good but lesser quality.

The initial complaint in the action alleged only unfair competition under New York statutory and common law. An amended complaint asserted additional causes of action for infringement of two patents and three copyrights, and violation of Section 43 of the Lanham Act. The defendants counterclaimed for, inter alia, damages for interference by plaintiff with customer relationships by making knowingly baseless patent and copyright claims.

The first trial of the case was conducted, without a jury, during late June and early July, 1982. The Court rendered its decision on July 16,1983. In an opinion reported at 568 F.Supp. 319 (S.D.N.Y.1983), the Court held that one patent owned by the plaintiff (the “ ’245 patent”) was valid, but not infringed by the defendants; that the plaintiff’s other patent (the “ ’818 patent”) was invalid for obviousness; that the plaintiff’s three copyrights were invalid; and that the plaintiff’s jewelry settings were functional, and therefore not subject to Lanham Act protection. The Court, however, did find for the plaintiff on the question of unfair competition under New York Law, concluding essentially that defendants had copied the plaintiff’s ring settings. The Court granted injunctive relief therefrom. The defendants were permanently enjoined from selling or offering for sale “any piece of jewelry which is confusingly similar in appearance to any piece of Gemveto jewelry, having nonfunctional attributes that are original with Gemveto.” See, Judgment Order and Injunction, entered on July 26, 1983. The Court dismissed the defendants’ counterclaims of unfair competition.

Nine days later, on August 4, 1983, the defendant filed a motion for reconsideration of the Court’s ruling and clarification of the scope of the injunction, and the plaintiff about this time moved to hold the defendant in contempt for asserted violations of the injunction. These matters were referred to Magistrate Buchwald who, after protracted hearings, issued a Report and Recommendation to the Court on January 26, 1984. The Magistrate, in substance, concluded that, except for the ring settings, which had been found by the Court to be either not patented, or patented but not infringed, there were no other original aspects of the plaintiff’s jewelry which could be legally protected from copying by the defendant, that the injunction was therefore vague, and that the contempt asserted against the defendant was not justified.

On May 4, 1985 the plaintiff moved to vacate the finding of invalidity of the '818 patent on the grounds of newly discovered evidence, and petitioned for a new trial on that issue. On July 19, 1985 the Court issued an opinion, reported at 613 F.Supp. 1052 (S.D.N.Y.1985), accepting the Magistrate’s recommendations that the injunction was in need of clarification and that defendant should not be held in contempt. The Court refused, however, to modify its previous holding that the defendant had violated New York’s unfair competition law. Furthermore, the Court granted the plaintiff’s motion for a new trial on the issue of validity of the ’818 patent.

In its 1985 opinion, the Court significantly revised and broadened the findings of fact in its 1983 judgment of liability against the defendant on the claim of unfair competition under New York common law. Principally, there were more explicit findings on Cooper’s attempts to palm off plaintiff’s designs as being its own; “predatory practices” engaged in by the defendants; and a deliberate attempt by the defendants to deceive the public. The decision enjoined the defendants “from selling or offering for sale any item of jewelry that is confusingly similar in appearance to any item of Gemveto jewelry such that the sale or offer for sale of such item, by any method or means, is calculated to deceive the public as [1087]*1087to its source.” 1

On September 9, 1985 the Court referred the injunctive remedy issue back to Magistrate Buchwald to hear and report “with respect to the items of jewelry manufactured or sold or offered for sale by defendants which are confusingly similar in appearance to any item of plaintiffs jewelry.” On October 18, 1985 after further hearings, the Magistrate submitted a Report and Recommendation, identifying hundreds of rings, bracelets and necklaces in the defendants’ inventory as “confusingly similar” to those of the plaintiff. The proposed form of judgment on the injunction differed from the Court’s 1983 order in that it prohibited the sale of confusingly similar items by any method “calculated to deceive the public as to its source” (annexed proposed order, p. 3, Report and Recommendation of Magistrate Buchwald, October 18, 1985).

Defendants objected to the Report and Recommendation and on October 28, 1985 asked the Court to reject it, asserting that, in effect, the Magistrate had ruled “that any sale by the defendants of jewelry which is confusingly similar to the plaintiff’s jewelry is, ipso facto, calculated to deceive the public as to its source” (Affidavit of Howard C. Miskin, dated October 28, 1985). The defendants further complained that the injunction as devised by the Magistrate was so broad that it covered in excess of 80% of defendants’ inventory, that it covered designs long in the public domain, that it covered settings that the Court itself had found were not protected by either patent or copyright, and that immediately after the Court’s second opinion of July 19, 1985 the defendant Cooper had undertaken “to have labels as well as my logo stamped on my products made for attachment to all of the jewelry I sell. The labels clearly identify Jeff Cooper as the source of the jewelry and prevent any likelihood of confusion as to source of origin.” (Affidavit of Jeff Cooper, dated October 29, 1985).

On December 5, 1985 the Court denied the defendants’ motions challenging the Magistrate’s Report, accepted it, and entered the revised injunctive order, denying the defendants a stay pending appeal.

Exactly one year later, on December 5, 1986 the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated the injunction and remanded the case for further proceedings, finding that, because the designs enjoined were determined simply by comparing appearance, the focus of the injunction was “protecting the designs of the jewelry rather than on preventing unfair methods of selling the jewelry.” Gemveto Jewelry Company, Inc. v. Jeff Cooper, Inc,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
694 F. Supp. 1085, 227 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 623, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10314, 1988 WL 94939, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gemveto-jewelry-co-v-jeff-cooper-inc-nysd-1988.