Deckers lawsuit against e-commerce sellers. Have you sold Deckers-owned UGG footwear products on Amazon, Etsy, Wish.com, eBay, AliExpress, Alibaba, or DHgate? Consequently, you may have received a legal notice naming you in a patent infringement lawsuit. The insufficient “verification and confirmation” of your seller identity on these “third party service providers” may be the leading cause of the issue. The result, however, remains the same. A Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) is holding your business back from generating money.
Should I Respond to the Notice?
Understandably, you may want to push the notice aside and go on about your day. This is not the move to make! RESPOND TO THE NOTICE OR YOU MAY HAVE TO FACE A DEFAULT JUDGMENT! In a sense, a Default Judgment could mean the end of the road for this case. Essentially, it will only benefit you to provide a response. Failure to respond will likely further negatively impact your business.
Case No. 23-cv-02600: Deckers/UGG
Patent Infringement suit filed by Deckers. The lawsuit claims that you and the other Defendants may “reside and/or operate in the People’s Republic of China or other foreign jurisdictions with lax intellectual property enforcement systems.” To add onto that, Deckers states you are using “tactics” to “conceal [your] identity and the full scope of [your] operation” as part of an elaborate scheme to sell infringing products to consumers in the United States.
Sold UGGs? Patent Infringement Lawsuit
Another key point, the lawsuit also claims, “Defendants facilitate sales by designing e-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases so that they appear to unknowing consumers to be authorized online retailers, outlet stores, or wholesalers.”
You have strategically curated an online presence that makes customers believe you are selling “authorized” products, per the notice.
Not only has that claim been made, but also that “Defendants regularly register or acquire new seller aliases for the purpose of offering for sale and selling Infringing Products.” Deckers has put forth that you have taken “willful” action “under multiple fictitious aliases” or fake names so that your identity remains unclear. In this case, removing the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) from your account(s) may be accomplished by verifying your identity.
Defendant in Deckers Lawsuit?
Do you “maintain off-shore bank accounts”? How about “regularly move funds from [your] financial accounts to off-shore accounts outside the jurisdiction of this Court to avoid payment of any monetary judgment awarded to Deckers”? These claims were made, too. However, their validity remains in question. Indeed, the notice itself relays that these statements are based on “analysis of financial account transaction logs from previous similar cases.” Which means, they may be irrelevant when it comes to you and your business.
Perhaps you use sites like sellerdefense.cn, kaidianyo.com, kuajingvs.com, and QQ.com to communicate with other sellers. That communication, though, may not be for discussion of “tactics for operating multiple accounts, evading detection, pending litigation, and potential new lawsuits.”
If you know you are not “working in active concert to knowingly and willfully manufacture, import, distribute, offer for sale, and sell Infringing Products,” we can help you clear your name.
UGG Patent Infringement
Stockman & Poropat, PLLC is equipped with the exact expertise and legal wherewithal to alleviate your intellectual property conundrum! We have solved problems like yours for a wide variety of global clients. Come on now, contact us!
We trust this content was useful! Peep our blog for updates on cases like this one and other legal matters related to intellectual property. Up next we will be discussing Christian Dior’s Infringement Lawsuit.
See below for a link to the complaint itself ⚖️
