Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Michigan

We operate a business selling Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works items. We do not indicate that we are in any way affiliated with either company. We only used there name in the title of the item, since it is a part of the items description. We do not use their logos or anything else.

We were just contacted today by Victoria's Secret informing us that they do not permit the re-sale of their items and that our information was being forwarded onto their Brand Protection department.

Our question is whether or not what we are doing is considered an infringement of their brand and whether a company can prevent us from reselling items that we purchase from them at retail.


Asked on 11/19/09, 2:36 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Sarah Grosse Sarah Grosse, Esquire

VC is very litigious, and I would be somewhat scared of their Brand Protection department, who are without a doubt a collection of retired PIs, police officers (perhaps FBI), former military in intelligence ops, and lawyers.

What can they do to you? They can try to put you out of business. What you are doing is not technically illegal, but they will find any way possible to sue you (trademark or copyright infringement come to my mind immediately). Even if they have no likelihood of winning, you will go 'under the bus' just trying to defend.

I do know this from years of working in the consumer products industry as their lawyer and combatting diversion myself.

Please see an attorney who is very familiar with this particular issue to help you if you choose to not cease and desist and choose to defend yourself. As this is a multi-state issue, I may be able to help from FL if I could get the case into Federal Court.

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Answered on 11/26/09, 7:34 am


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