Copyright Infringement will be widespread on major cross-border e-commerce platforms by 2023, and there have been several instances of cross-border vendors being fiercely complained about infringement. If the seller is not cautious not to get “struck,” the infringement problem will also result in significant losses for the vendor, which is very unfortunate for many merchants.
Through this article, the My Sourcify will examine the cross-border e-commerce copyright infringement situations in the previous year, and we hope that all sellers and friends would pay attention to such concerns. Bellow is Well-known Cases on Intellectual Property Infringement, let’s go though.
Cases 1: 524 Wedding dress sellers‘ account Suspended
On November 25, 2021, many Wedding dress sellers have received notices of account suspended. The reason is that they were sued for infringement by DAVID law in the United States, and the Illinois court executed a temporary TRO. Subsequently, the sellers urgently set up a WeChat group, and someone released the list of “victimized” merchants, a total of 524.
This time, 105 vendors agreed not to compromise, but rather to stay warm and react to the lawsuit together.
A merchant who witnessed the occurrence in person uploaded the following chronology on Weibo:
On December 2, 2021, at the first court hearing, the plaintiff’s lawyer was astonished in the courtroom, and his words were nonsensical for a time, before announcing on the spot that he would drop the action against the 524 dealers whose wedding dress business had been frozen.
On the afternoon of December 3, 2021, seller accounts began to unfreeze one after the other, and the seller group began to boil once more.
Cases 2:Shenzhen service provider was severely fined! 15000+ US trademarks are voided!
The United States Patent and Trademark Office officially issued a ruling on the USPTO‘s official website in December 2021, stating that Shenzhen Huanyee Company had violated the USPTO’s bottom line by engaging in the illegal agency, signing applications, providing false addresses, and sharing application accounts.
The US Trademark and Patent Office did not provide the institution involved an opportunity to re-examine and instead imposed harsh sanctions:
Permanently delete any USPTO account having contact information linked with the firm, and take efforts to prevent the company from opening or activating further accounts; Revoke and invalidate all 15,807 trademarks applied for by its agency;
Fees previously paid (loss in excess of 20 million RMB) will not be reimbursed.
In reality, in June of this year, “14,000 US trademarks of a Shenzhen intellectual property agency were exposed, which were forcefully canceled by the US trademark commissioner!” The USPTO noticed at the time that Shenzhen Huanyee Intellectual Property Co., Ltd. was accused of giving incorrect information and issued an Order of evidence. Shenzhen Huanyee employed American attorneys to give a slew of proof, leading many vendors to believe that they would be unaffected.
On December 10, 2021, it was officially revealed that more than 15,000 US trademarks represented by Shenzhen Huanyee Company had all been canceled! Trademarks are null and invalid, and merchants’ illusions are entirely shattered. At that point, the vendor dashed to the background to see whether there was any irregularity in the trademark filing.
Cases 3: “Squid Game” Infringement Sweep Strikes
With the unexpected global success of the Korean TV series “Squid Game,” the search ranking of the entry “Squid Game Costume” on Amazon has risen from 190,000 all the way to fourth place in October 2021, and the search key on Amazon US station is the key. The phrase “Squid Game” appears in up to 4,000 similar items.
Following the broadcast of the show, Netflix, the copyright business, commissioned a third-party firm, BrandShield, to file a slew of infringement complaints. According to the seller’s email, certain of the seller’s items were suspected of infringing on the intellectual property rights of others, and Amazon swiftly withdrew the linked products from the shelves.
The intensity of the complaints was so great that many sellers selling related products were affected, and they could not escape the tragic fate of being banned from their listings.
Cases 4: Organized and planned! Amazon’s US site’s Best Seller under attack
The greatest seller on Amazon’s US revealed that it was not accessible for sale by the end of October 2021, according to a victim seller. It was not a random crime, but rather a well-organized, calculated, and well-planned assault.
The goal of unlawful organizations is to take the top 100 sales rankings in various categories, as well as brand management of best-selling products. Sellers find it quite difficult to communicate this. Following the event, some vendors submitted pertinent evidence to Amazon in order to file an appeal, but they were all denied.
This also concerns a major Amazon bug. Because an unlawful organization submitted a brand infringement complaint with Amazon, Amazon mistook the complainant for the true brand owner and transferred brand authority to the criminal group, although Amazon did not elaborate. Examine the trademark registration number to see whether it’s the same.
Cases 5:Portable Door Lock Infringement Prosecution
BAOYING ZHAO, the brand owner, hired Palmer Law Group of Florida to file a patent infringement action, bring 112 alleged infringing retailers to court, and apply to the court for a TRO temporary injunction to bring the defendants to trial on November 2, 2021. All money in the shop has been frozen. The plaintiff’s appearance patent was issued on July 6, 2021, and the infringement will be severely enforced in four months.
The judge dismissed the plaintiff’s PIO litigation injunction application on December 7, 2021, after canceling the plaintiff’s TRO injunction. The lawyer will then apply to the platform to have the funds unfrozen for the defendant seller who answers to the litigation.
Cases 6:“Last Mouse Lost” cracked down on infringement, and 39 sellers’ accounts were frozen!
Last Mouse Lost, a stress-relieving toy, became popular on Amazon in the first half of 2021. FoxMind was the first to market with the product. Squeezing bubbles became popular as a pleasant technique to release tension during the pandemic.
FoxMind, the brand owner, hired EPS Law Firm to defend them in a lawsuit against merchants accused of trademark and patent infringement in June 2021. The accounts of 39 vendors have been frozen as a result of a thorough examination by the appropriate agencies. According to a vendor that offers Rat Pioneer, the company’s over 700 rodent Pioneer devices were all abandoned, resulting in a loss of roughly $10,000.
According to reports, FoxMind registered the rodent pioneer’s visual trademarks 90261429 and 90261393 in 2020. FoxMind registered the word mark “Pop It” in the first half of 2021.
Cases 7:More than 20 sellers sued for infringing Champion trademark
Amazon and HanesBrands, a U.S. underwear and athletic apparel company, filed 13 lawsuits against more than 20 Chinese vendors in June 2021, accusing them of exploiting the HanesBrands-registered Champion brand to sell silicone protective earphone covers without permission.
Cases 8:12 sellers sued for outdoor grill infringement
Weber, an Amazon subsidiary, filed a lawsuit against 12 defendants in November 2021, saying that they unlawfully marketed items with the registered trademark “WEBER” on Amazon marketplaces.
By attempting to distribute counterfeit copies of grill covers from worldwide grill manufacturers, the defendants broke Amazon’s regulations, breached Weber’s registered trademark, and broke the law.
The action, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, claims that the defendants collaborated to deceive customers about the legitimacy and provenance of their products and to create false connections with Weber. Amazon voluntarily refunded impacted customers after closing the defendants’ selling accounts.
Cases 9: Seven sellers of counterfeit GoPro accessories and two businesses indicted
Amazon and GoPro sued seven retailers and two firms on August 10, 2021, for infringing on GoPro accessories.
The counterfeit GoPro popular camera accessories, such as the floating handle “Handler” and the multi-function tripod “3-Way,” were advertised by the vendors implicated in the case, and were labeled with GoPro’s logo.
Cases 10: The vendor has gotten over 90 Amazon warning letters
The vendor has gotten over 90 Amazon warning letters in a row, and each listing has been deleted…
Early in December 2021, the Amazon seller forum published a letter in which a seller claimed that Amazon had sent his shop almost 100 infringement emails.
According to the seller known only as “Fz,” he has received more than 90 Amazon infringement emails, and the number is continually growing… Because the Fz seller stated that he did not send the illegal email, it’s a little ambiguous. There have been no infringements.
WWE, Disney, Dragon Ball Z, Doctor Who, Celine Dion, Genesis, and others are among the IPs engaged in the violation, according to the Fz seller. He did not, however, sell the counterfeit and poor items associated with these IPs; instead, he just added these trademark names to the product listing, which was subsequently removed from Amazon’s shelves on the basis that he was accused of breaching intellectual property rights.
Sellers can actively seek aid from the outside world, defend their rights via various channels, and band together when required in the face of malicious complaints. There are some compelling arguments in the preceding.
Sellers, on the other hand, must pay greater attention to their own intellectual property awareness. First and foremost, people must be “right and not frightened of shadows” in order to avoid difficulties from arising and to increase their confidence while asserting their rights!
