When Tiffany & Co. sued eBay in 2004, it said 73% of items purchased on eBay in a study it conducted were counterfeit. Now Tiffany is having its day in court. The bench trial (no jury) kicked off on Tuesday in what some say may be a precedent setting case.

Other high-end brand owners have also sued eBay for failure to get counterfeits off its marketplace. eBay's lawyer told the court the company relies on the expertise of more than 14,000 copyright and trademark owners to find counterfeit merchandise.

It was one year ago that eBay launched an aggressive anti-counterfeiting initiative in which it required sellers to pass a manual review before letting them list items prone to counterfeiting (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m12/i22/s01).

More information about the first day of the trial can be read in these AP and Reuters accounts.

Tiffany and EBay Square Off in Court

Tiffany says eBay turned blind eye to fakes