The verdict "establishes a standard" for trademark infringement complaints on the Internet, said Andy Coombs, Louis Vuitton's counsel, in a statement. "It represents a positive contribution to existing case law and marks the first time statutory damages have been awarded against those found contributorily liable for trademark infringement," Coombs said.

In an interview with Computerworld today, Coombs said the verdict shows why it's important for ISPs to enforce acceptable use policies. "It's one thing to have these policies, but you've got to implement them when given notice of abuse," he said.

It's equally important to ensure that the infringing activity doesn't happen again, Coombs said. In this case, Louis Vuitton was able to show that it had sent numerous notices to the ISPs, which were ignored or not acted upon expeditiously Coombs said.

Lawyers for Chen could not be reached for comment.

The verdict drew mixed reactions. One poster with the name Bret Clark, in a among network engineers on the North American Network Operators Group''s (NANOG) Web site, questioned why an ISP was being held responsible for "policing its customers. I'm constantly getting called up from scammers trying to [offer] me bogus warranty insurance for cars I don't own. Does that mean I can sue Verizon because they are letting scammers use their network?" the poster asked.