In the case that currently has a fair amount of my attention … Chanel and What Goes Around Comes Around (“WGACA”) are expected to make their closing arguments before a New York federal jury today, bringing the first portion of the trademark trial to a close.
You may recall … that Judge Stanton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York provided an outline for the trial in December, stating that the first portion of the trial will be presented to the jury, which will be tasked with deciding “which, if any, of the claims made by Chanel [that] [WGACA] is liable [for].” This will “be followed immediately by its award of damages and legal remedies, such as statutory damages,” according to the court. Then, the parties will present evidence related to “equitable remedies, such as disgorgement and injunctive relief,” exclusively to the court.
A bit of background: Chanel filed suit against WGACA in 2018, alleging that the resale company has tried to “deceive consumers into falsely believing [that it] has some kind of affiliation with Chanel or that Chanel has authenticated [the pre-owned] goods [it is offering up] in order to trade off of Chanel’s brand and goodwill.” At the same time, Chanel has claimed that the New York-headquartered reseller has offered up infringing Chanel-branded products – from coveted handbags to hundreds of display items, the latter of which were never meant for sale. WGACA has come back with nominative fair use, first sale, etc. arguments in its defense.
