The rivalry between two high jewelry brands BLACKPINK’s Jisoo and Rosé represent turns into a trade secret lawsuit 

Cartier and Tiffany & Co. have become two most familiar high-end jewelry brands to fans of Kpop idols thanks to their endorsement deals with BLACKPINK’s members Jisoo and Rosé. Last year, Rosé was also appointed Tiffany’s global ambassador. These two big jewelers have always been rivals in the market, but recently, it has gotten more serious as Cartier went after Tiffany in a new lawsuit.  

As reported by The Guardian, Cartier has sued Tiffany & Co, accusing its rival of stealing trade secrets related to its collection and some proprietary products through former low-level manager Megan Marino.

According to a complaint filed in New York state court in Manhattan, Tiffany hired an insufficiently qualified junior manager to surreptitiously gather information about Cartier’s high jewelry collection, where pieces are worth $50,000 to $10 million.

A Cartier representative said Tiffany’s action is a desperate attempt to revive its own high jewelry unit after many failed attempts, and added that this is a reflection of Tiffany’s “disturbing culture of misappropriating competitive information”.

According to court information, Tiffany appeared to ultimately blame Marino by firing her after just five weeks. Meanwhile, Marino said Tiffany was “more interested in hiring me as a source of information than as a High Jewelry manager”.

Cartier also accused Tiffany of instigating a former Cartier executive to secretly work on a high-jewelry project called Blue Book, despite her six-month non-compete agreement.

The lawsuit, Cartier said, seeks an injunction requiring that Tiffany return and not use stolen trade secrets, plus unspecified damages.