Cup of Lavazza coffee, a brand owned by an Italian manufacturer of coffee products that was founded in Turin in 1895 by Luigi Lavazza/courtesy photo

A New Jersey company that operates an Amazon storefront claims Italian coffee purveyor Lavazza is unlawfully interfering with the online resale of its products, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The suit filed by LY Berditchev Co. of Passaic says Lavazza is stifling competition by making false reports to Amazon that resellers are violating its intellectual property rights.

The suit says LY Berditchev is lawfully permitted to resell Lavazza products without violating the company's intellectual property rights under the first sale doctrine. That doctrine provides that, once a manufacturer places a product in the stream of commerce through its first sale, it can no longer enforce its intellectual property rights on resellers if the products being sold are authentic and unaltered.

Lavazza is not the only purveyor of goods to find itself in court over the online sale of its products, although the producer of brand-name goods is usually the plaintiff.

In December 2018, retailer Williams-Sonoma sued Amazon in a San Francisco federal court, accusing the online retailer of trading on its goodwill and infringing its intellectual property. In May, a judge denied Amazon's motion to dismiss that case after it cited the first sale doctrine, finding the use of Williams-Sonoma's service mark "plausibly suggest an affiliation with Williams-Sonoma that does not actually exist."

Chanel has filed two suits against operators of fashion resale websites, accusing them of trying to deceive consumers into falsely believing that they are affiliated with Chanel. And in 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled for eBay in a trademark infringement suit brought by Tiffany & Co., which accused the online retailer of selling counterfeit versions of its products.

The LY Berditchev suit was filed by Mark Berkowitz of Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein in New York. The suit names Milan-based Luigi Lavazza S.p.A. and its American subsidiary as defendants. It seeks a declaratory judgment that LY Berditchev did not engage in trademark infringement or counterfeiting. The suit also accuses Lavazza of making false or misleading representations and engaging in unfair competition, and brings claims of tortious interference with contract and business relations, defamation and trade libel.

LY Berditchev acquires Lavazza products and resells them at a profit. Lavazza has made at least 14 complaints to Amazon that its products sold by LY Berditchev are counterfeit, the suit claims. Amazon suspended the sales of Lavazza products by LY Berditchev in each case, the suit said.

Lavazza was unable to provide any evidence in support of its claims, but nevertheless refused to withdraw those complaints, according to the suit.

"It is well-known among brand owners that Amazon has a policy of acting on virtually any notice of intellectual property infringement, whether legitimate or not," the suit claims. The complaint cites an article from a website called Web Retailer stating that, "Unless you (and possibly your legal team) can prove that the notice claim is false, Amazon considers it valid and actionable. Unfortunately, word is out among potential notice claim abusers that anyone can submit a form."

Lavazza, which has not filed a response, did not respond to a request for comment.