Auction site eBay won a big victory in federal court yesterday. Tiffany & Co. sued eBay in 2004 after asking the company to remove listings with the Tiffany name in them. Tiffany claimed that eBay knew many counterfeit goods were being auctioned on the site, and that eBay had a responsibility to stop them.

The court ruled in eBay's favor, saying that it is Tiffany's responsibility to protect its own trademarks, not the auction company. The judge said that general knowledge of trademark infringement didn't make eBay responsible for the infringement.

Last week, eBay lost a similar suit in France, brought by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA. The maker of luxury goods won a judgment of over $61 million against eBay because of the sale of counterfeit purses, perfume, and accessories.

Counterfeit $100 bills are circling the globe, and their story is intriguing. These bills are so well done that that it's next to impossible to tell that they're fakes. They've been dubbed "supernotes" because of their precision.

Experts say these are the most sophisticated examples of counterfeit U.S. currency ever seen. They are made of the exact same cotton and linen mix from which legitimate U.S. currency is made. They even have the proper-colored microfibers and an embedded strip that glows under ultraviolet light... both key pieces of currency that are supposed to be difficult to counterfeit. The fake bills also have the proper microprint and optically variable ink (OVI) that distinguishes authentic U.S currency.

Authorities say the bills haven't been printed in large quantities. Only $50 million of supernotes have been found since 1989, which is estimated to be too little to even cover the cost of the sophisticated printing process required.