Court grants Universal injunction against Collezione Europa
Heath E. Combs -- Furniture Today, January 13, 2008
High Point — A federal court has barred Collezione Europa from selling two collections that were earlier ruled to infringe on Universal Furniture copyrights.
On Nov. 30, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina issued a permanent injunction in a three-year-old case restricting Collezione Europa from imitating or copying designs from Universal's Grand Inheritance and English Manor collections, introduced in 2001 and 2002.
It also prevented Collezione from distributing furniture in its Nos. 20000 and 20200 collections, except chairs and rectangular tables in the No. 20000 collection. The court ordered the infringing items impounded and destroyed.
Collezione Europa, which is appealing the court's September ruling, had sought a motion to stay the injunction in November pending its appeal of the case. The court denied that motion.
"We are pleased that the court has once again ruled in our favor and unequivocally ordered Collezione to not only stop marketing and selling its infringing furniture but also to impound the infringing furniture," said Universal CEO Randy Chrisley.
In September, the court found Collezione Europa guilty of copyright infringement for representing Universal product as its own during the October 2004 High Point Market.
Collezione claimed that the furniture couldn't be copyrighted because its design elements were taken from the public domain, among other points in its defense. But the court ruled that the pieces met the threshold for originality and held that Universal owns valid copyrights.
Collezione Europa officials were unavailable for comment last week.
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Court bars Collezione from selling Universal designs
Dec 11, 2007
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