Verragio Says It’s Cracking Down on Copycats

New York--Verragio Ltd. has sent out 30 cease-and-desist letters and filed 10 lawsuits in an effort to crack down on companies it said are copying its diamond engagement ring designs.

The lawsuits and letters have come over the past 18 months after Verragio, tipped off in large part by other jewelry designers and retailers, became aware there was a proliferation of rings deemed as lookalikes in the market.

Filed in federal courts from New York to California, the lawsuits accuse jewelry manufacturers and one retailer of infringing on copyrighted engagement ring designs in Verragio’s six collections and, in some cases, of incorporating the trademarked Verragio Crest (as seen above) into their rings.

Among the companies being sued is Malakan Diamond Co., which is accused of copying rings from the Parisian, Insignia and Venetian collections and using the trademarked Crest in their rings.

In an email to National Jeweler on Thursday, Malakan’s attorney in the case, H. Ty Kharazi, said his client manufactured the pieces in question in the “early 1990s” and pointed specifically to the company’s Michelle collection, made in 1998.

“The design and effects not only are different from Verragio’s, they also pre-date their (copyrights),” he said.

Verragio also is suing Neenah, Wisconsin manufacturer and retailer A & E Jewelers Inc. and AE Jewelers of Appleton LLC, a former Verragio customer that also is mentioned in the Malakan lawsuit as selling allegedly infringing rings made by Malakan.

In that lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Verragio alleges that after it cut ties with the retailer because of lack of payment, A & E Jewelers sold a customer a “slavish copy” of one of its rings from the Parisian collection and then told the customer it was a Verragio ring.

The attorney for A&E Jewelers did not respond to request for comment by deadline.

Verragio also has ongoing lawsuits against D & M-SMJ Inc. d/b/a Skatell’s Manufacturing Jewelers, SK Diamonds and S. Kashi & Sons Inc. All of those cases were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Todd Wengrovsky, the attorney representing S. Kashi & Sons, declined to comment on the pending litigation, citing the “early stage” of the case. (The lawsuit against S. Kashi & Sons was filed in September.)

The attorneys representing Skatell’s Manufacturing Jewelers and SK Diamonds did not respond to an email request for comment by deadline.

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