Brand owners are better cost distributors – increasing liability on platforms increases the price of all goods sold
Andrew Ligon Fant, 2022 - J.D. Candidate, 2023, University of Georgia School of Law. “Reconsidering the Willful Blindness Doctrine in Contributory Trademark Infringement,” 29 J. INTELL. PROP. L. 318 (2022). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/jipl/vol29/iss2/3 //DH
Indeed, brand owners, not online marketplace owners, are in the best position to identify infringement in ecommerce because of their expertise in their products and registered marks.174 Also, as Professors Schechter and Thomas argue, brand owners are the better cost distributors.175 If marketplaces must absorb the cost of policing and paying compensation for infringement, the cost would likely be borne by every user since such cost would likely be distributed across all goods sold in the marketplace.176 Whereas, if brands—like Tiffany— absorb the cost, only consumers of that brand would bear the cost since the cost would be distributed across all of that brand’s genuine goods.177