Ramones Trademark Owner Sues Online Sellers
Merch Traffic, LLC is suing online sellers for offering counterfeit Ramones products to consumers! Anyone who is a Defendant in the case should respond to the court in a timely fashion. When dealing with infringement allegations, it doesn’t make sense to try and ignore the lawsuit. Doing that could really hurt your business. As soon as you can, provide a response so that you can avoid a potential Default Judgment!
The Plaintiff, Merch Traffic, is claiming that the Defendants infringed on several Ramones trademarks. These registered trademarks include, RAMONES, BLITZKRIEG BOP, HEY HO LET’S GO, GABBA GABBA HEY, and ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL. According to the trademark holder, these marks “are valid, subsisting, in full force and effect,” and “are displayed extensively on Ramones products and in Plaintiff’s marketing and promotional materials.” The Plaintiff also alleges:
Defendants are individuals and business entities of unknown makeup who own and/or operate one or more of the e-commerce stores under at least the Seller Aliases identified on Schedule A and/or other seller aliases not yet known to Plaintiff. On information and belief, Defendants reside and/or operate in the People’s Republic of China or other foreign jurisdictions with lax trademark enforcement systems, or redistribute products from the same or similar sources in those locations.
Schedule A Infringement Cases | Temporary Restraining Orders
Our firm has been informed about many such Schedule A infringement cases in recent years. These cases have frustrated quite a few e-commerce businesses throughout the world. The reason why is with these lawsuits comes a temporary restraining order (TRO).
What’s the significance of a temporary restraining order? Once the court approves a TRO, the Defendants will be prevented from gaining access to their online seller accounts. That means, sellers won’t be able to touch the money they earned from selling Ramones products. This freeze, so to speak, can be a serious disruption for any online business. And, the only way to address the TRO is to respond to the lawsuit.
The Ramones trademark owners believe that mass counterfeiting has taken place. In essence, by getting a restraining order approved, they are trying to stop that alleged infringement from happening. If a seller abandons the suit, all of the money in their frozen account will be awarded to Merch Traffic. That outcome would be the result of the Defendant’s lack of action. As we mentioned, this kind of decision could lead to a Default Judgment, which you should try to avoid!
The Best Defense is an Intellectual Property Attorney
The best defense is an intellectual property attorney! For sure, retaining a lawyer to address the infringement lawsuit will require an investment. Some online sellers fear that an attorney isn’t worth the investment. By and large, Defendants in trademark infringement cases who respond to the lawsuit with an attorney achieve better outcomes. We know that your business has already taken a loss with the restraining order and any extra costs at this time may seem unreasonable. However, the options for resolution without an attorney are extremely limited. For example, lots of sellers opt for reaching settlements directly with the Plaintiff.
Without a doubt, sellers can negotiate a settlement with Merch Traffic on their own. In fact, that’s part of the Plaintiff’s strategy when they filed the lawsuit. Schedule A lawsuits give Plaintiffs the power to settle with a bundle of alleged counterfeiters all at once. It’s a method often used in infringement cases because it allows the mark owners to recoup a portion of their overall loss in a slightly predictable way. The sellers who accept settlements with the trademark owners don’t always come out unscathed, though. On the whole, most Schedule A settlements provide the seller with only 60% of their frozen money. All of the remaining capital, in that case, goes to the Plaintiff.
By retaining an attorney, sellers have the ability to negotiate better settlements and more favorable outcomes. Perhaps your business didn’t actually sell the kind of counterfeit goods described in the lawsuit – great! But, how do you establish that to the Plaintiff? That’s where your lawyer comes in. Maybe you want to settle, but aren’t comfortable with just 60% – again, your attorney is the best way to achieve this.
Merch Traffic Allegations of Infringement…
Just what are the allegations of trademark infringement regarding Ramones products? Here are a few of them:
Many Defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using the RAMONES Trademarks without authorization within the content, text, and/or meta tags of their e-commerce stores to attract various search engines crawling the Internet looking for e-commerce stores relevant to consumer searches for Ramones products.
Other e-commerce stores operating under Seller Aliases omit using the RAMONES Trademarks in the item title to evade enforcement efforts while using strategic item titles and descriptions that will trigger their listings when consumers are searching for Ramones products.
Counterfeiters such as Defendants typically operate multiple seller aliases and payment accounts so that they can continue operation in spite of Plaintiff’s enforcement. E- commerce store operators like Defendants maintain off-shore bank accounts and regularly move funds from their financial accounts to off-shore accounts outside the jurisdiction of this Court to avoid payment of any monetary judgment awarded to Plaintiff.
At Stockman & Poropat, PLLC, our team is dedicated to delivering the best results for our clients! Contact us today for a free consultation. Our firm can provide you the legal services you need as an online seller to continue on the road to success.
Download the legal complaint below:
Up next we will be discussing the Barbie Trademark Infringement Lawsuit.
