Online Sellers Sued by Rainbow Friends for Trademark and Copyright Infringement

The owners of the Rainbow Friends intellectual property are filing a new lawsuit due to trademark and copyright infringement. According to the Plaintiff, the Rainbow Friends brand has been damaged because online sellers are selling counterfeit products. As with many federal infringement lawsuits, Rainbow Friends wants to sue sellers for two reasons. First, to stop the alleged counterfeiting from continuing. And two, to reach direct settlements with the Defendants. Both are so the brand can get back some of the money they lost because of online sellers. 

Everything described in the Rainbow Friends counterfeit lawsuit legal complaint are allegations of wrongdoing. The proof of any given seller’s actions hasn’t been proven as described by the Plaintiff or otherwise. Be that as it may, Rainbow Friends will seek a temporary restraining order. The court will approve that and then every named seller’s online business will be disrupted! Namely, sellers won’t be able to touch the money in their seller accounts. 

Federal Lawsuit Leads to Freeze of Online Seller Accounts

The TRO will in effect freeze your seller account. By extension, you won’t have access to the money earned from selling Rainbow Friends products. In some instances, the restraining order may also prevent sellers from touching money made from the sale of other products, too. It’s a serious and major issue! Perhaps it’s obvious. But, sellers ought to try and find a beneficial fix to this problem as soon as they can. The best way to streamline the process of navigating a trademark and copyright infringement lawsuit is to hire an intellectual property attorney! 

Some folks may be operating under the assumption that they can handle the lawsuit on their own. That’s your right to make that choice. Sellers can communicate with the Plaintiff and try to reach a direct settlement, if they so choose. Unfortunately, the majority of these direct settlements don’t actually benefit sellers. On the whole, if a seller being sued for infringement settles with the Plaintiff, they’ll likely get just about half of the money in their frozen seller account. So while the cost of hiring an attorney may seem unnecessary, it’s truly worthwhile! 

Rainbow Friends Lawsuit | Attorneys Can Help!

Sellers might not have the deep and experiential knowledge of the United States legal system. Understanding that side of the law isn’t exactly intertwined with being an online seller. Additionally, trademark and copyright infringement is somewhat of a complicated topic! What’s clear, though, is that if you’re being sued by Rainbow Friends, you need to provide a response to the lawsuit. Not only can your attorney handle that response, they’ll also inform you of how and when you should act, and negotiate a better settlement than you’d likely get from working directly with the Plaintiff yourself. 

If you don’t respond to the Rainbow Friends lawsuit, you could then have to deal with a Default Judgment, which is similar to an admission of guilt. That outcome is avoidable and costly and in most cases not a decision that can be overturned. Responding is required! Don’t ignore the lawsuit! Getting frustrated or intimidated is perfectly normal. And, taking action is within your power as a seller. Hire a lawyer and get your business on the right track. 

The essence of the Rainbow Friends infringement lawsuit is that the brand believes all of the Defendants have acted as a counterfeit network. That’s why the Plaintiff is suing more than one seller at once – it’s a “Schedule A” lawsuit. Taking this approach will allow Rainbow Friends to possibly gain more ground with direct settlements. Also, it empowers the Plaintiff to uniformly institute the temporary restraining order against all the sellers they’re calling a “network.” For some sellers, all they’ll have to do is prove their true identity. For others it may be more complex. It all depends! No matter, an intellectual property attorney will benefit you in this situation. 

The Allegations of Infringement | Rainbow Friends Infringement Lawsuit

Below are a selection of the allegations of trademark and copyright infringement as seen in the Rainbow Friends lawsuit:

Defendants have sold, offered to sell, marketed, distributed, and advertised, and are still selling, offering to sell, marketing, distributing, and advertising products using counterfeit reproductions of the RAINBOW FRIENDS Trademark without Plaintiff’s permission. 

On information and belief, Defendants have knowledge of Plaintiff’s rights in the RAINBOW FRIENDS Trademark and are willfully infringing and intentionally using infringing and counterfeit versions of the RAINBOW FRIENDS Trademark. Defendants’ willful, intentional, and unauthorized use of the RAINBOW FRIENDS Trademark is likely to cause and is causing confusion, mistake, and deception as to the origin and quality of the Unauthorized Rainbow Friends Products among the general public.

Promotion, marketing, offering for sale, and sale of Unauthorized Rainbow Friends Products has created and is creating a likelihood of confusion, mistake, and deception among the general public as to the affiliation, connection, or association with Plaintiff or the origin, sponsorship, or approval of Defendants’ Unauthorized Rainbow Friends Products by Plaintiff.

Defendants’ false designation of origin and misrepresentation of fact as to the origin and/or sponsorship of the Unauthorized Rainbow Friends Products to the general public involves the use of a counterfeit mark and is a willful violation of Section 43 of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125. 

Are you one of the sellers being sued by Rainbow Friends for infringement? Contact our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC today for a free consultation! 

Download the legal complaint below:

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