Costco isn’t the first brand name to pop-up when consumers are looking for high-end luxury, but a few folks thought they had found it there when they came across low-cost Tiffany diamond engagement rings. (And they didn’t even have to buy them in bulk.) 

Unfortunately for all those customers, the rings weren’t quite the real thing. Now, Tiffany is taking Costco to court for marketing some high-end jewelry in the past few years under its brand, without permission.

“We now know that there are hundreds if not thousands of Costco members who think they bought a Tiffany engagement ring at Costco, which they didn’t,” Jeffrey Mitchell, a lawyer for Tiffany, said in a statement to Bloomberg News. “Costco knew what it was doing when it used the Tiffany trademark to sell rings that had nothing to do with Tiffany.” The company's press release says it was tipped off by a California customer in November of the alleged scam. 

This isn’t the first time Tiffany has had trouble with a low-cost seller. It battled with Overstock.com back in 2010, which had sold 1,365 pendants under the Tiffany name. It also had legal battles with eBay, claiming that the online seller was at fault for allowing some of its vendors to sell counterfeit Tiffany items, but the court never agreed with Tiffany on that one.

Tiffany seems to have a better case against Costco, which legally sells high-end jewelry brands such as Cartier, Breitling, and Chanel — not to mention other luxury brands such as Coach, Burberry and Mercedes-Benz — at select locations, such as Boca Raton, of course.

Our most-read blog posts of the week includes Google+ and brands, John Deere's Can Do spirit and more:

#1 Worried About Google+? Help is on the Way

#2 Starbucks Scraps Crappers Just Before World Toilet Day

#3 John Deere Brings Can Do Spirit to Facebook Cause Marketing

#4 Nike ‘Back to the Future’ Shoes Raise $9.4 Million for Michael J. Fox Foundation

#5 Penn State and Joe Paterno Brand Damage: The Fall-Out Continues

#6 Overstock.com Backpedals on O.co Rebranding

#7 How Green Bay Packers Plan to be "America's Team"

#8 Flatter Up! Orioles Bring Back the Bird as Marlins Channel Maroon 5

#9 Angry Birds Flips the Bird to Hockey Fans

#10 Benetton's Back, Baby! Unhate Kiss Campaign Gets Papal Rebuke and Buzz

Overstock.com announced in January that it was rebranding its URL to O.co as a speedier online shortcut to its wares. In June, it unveiled the new name and logo at the O.co Coliseum in Oakland, CA (above) in time for a U2 concert, a signage change that following Overstock's six-year deal in April for naming rights to the home of NFL's Oakland Raiders and the Oakland Athletics MLB franchise.

"Our customers associate 'O' with Overstock.com, which made the transition to O.co seamless. As a Savings Engine, this is the next step in adding more visibility to our shortcut," said Overstock.com Chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne in a press release. "Naming the facility O.co Coliseum demonstrates our commitment to seeing through the execution of the new domain."

"Overstock.com is clearly at the forefront of digital marketing and their decision to use a .CO domain in such a big way, underscores their willingness to lead the market and to disrupt the status quo," commented Juan Diego Calle, CEO of .CO Internet SAS in the same release. "With the exponential growth of mobile commerce, where shaving milliseconds means gaining a strategic competitive advantage, customers around the world can now reach the company's products and services quickly and securely by simply typing O.co — the shortest possible URL in the world."

Now, however, the company is backing off from the new name because customers couldn't find its snappy new URL.Continue reading...

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Barbie links with Stardoll for premium collection.

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Disney buys Babble.com for $40M to reach 'hipster parents.'

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Amazon.com is a brand that is forever calculating, scheming, trying to find a new business extension or a way to use less to do more with the business extensions it already has.

From jumping into the grocery delivery business to, in its latest news, cutting its California affiliates in order to avoid collecting online sales tax for the state — such is the life of a behemoth online discounter.

Now Amazon Publishing is launching a quid pro quo program with authors: Blurb our books and Amazon will promote yours. But that's not the only Amazon "review" generating news.Continue reading...

AARP unveils a new ad campaign targeting boomers this week.

Apple will unveil iCloud Android-fighter today at WWDC, as brand leads tablet market in China.

Bank of America and Goldman Sachs lead US bank stocks taking a beating.

Blip.tv ramps up original content to complete with YouTube.

Boeing faces labor strife.

Coca-Cola resists increasing prices.

Demi Moore adds "CNN reporter" to her credits with sex trafficking doc, a subject near and dear to her DNA Foundation.

E3 starts tommorow, where Nintendo will unveil its new Wii console, Sony will tout NGP (its new handheld gaming device) and Microsoft will promote Kinect and position Xbox as the hub of the home entertainment system.Continue reading...

Shopping online in Connecticut has just gotten a little pricier.

The state of Connecticut figured it could make some extra bucks for itself when it recently passed a law to apply an sales tax to online retailers that goes into effect July 1, the Associated Press reports. But some online retailers aren’t into the idea one iota and have decided to remove themselves from doing business with Connecticut-based affiliates in order to avoid the 6.35% tax.

The largest of these sites, Overstock.com, had fewer than 10 affiliates in the state that “have earned $250,000 from revenue sharing during the past three years,” the Greenwich Time site reports. No those affiliates will go without that extra revenue. 

The way that it works is that if an online shopper wants to get a product from Overstock that is actually coming from a Connecticut company, the tax would apply. Overstock, which generated $1.1 billion in revenue last year, called the move "unconstitutional," joining smaller online retailers in breaking ties with Connecticut-based retailers.Continue reading...

Nikkei slips as another earthquake hit Japan Sunday, as Tepco head pressured to quit after costing shareholders $26 billion; fear of radiation and shortages drives panic buying of Japanese goods; auto industry suffers as Toyota, Honda and others stand to lose billions in revenue; and Wal-Mart reopens 12 quake-hit stores.

Google to launch in-app billing for Android; woos celebs to create themed channels on YouTube; and works on mobile payments as near field communications battle looms. CEO Larry Page, meanwhile, is working on cutting red tape and fostering internal communications.

BlackBerry-maker RIM is in "slow-motion decline," says WSJ, while acquires mobile tool developer.

Facebook is reportedly in talks to hire former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs; and updates Questions in boost for brands.Continue reading...