Trademark and Copyright Infringement | Hallmark Federal Counterfeit Lawsuit

Hallmark is suing online sellers for infringement once again! Are you a Defendant in the Hallmark federal counterfeit lawsuit? Know that you have the agency to hire your own lawyer and you may want to. With the Hallmark lawsuit, named e-commerce sellers will be struck with a temporary restraining order. That will tie up the money in your online accounts. When you have your own intellectual property attorney, you’ll be better equipped to find a creative legal solution. In case you’d like to settle with the Plaintiff, negotiations will be much improved by having a lawyer. Any seller who desires a reasonable outcome may very well benefit from legal counsel. 

Let’s get into some of the details of the Hallmark trademark and copyright lawsuit. As with many similar Schedule A infringement cases, the lawsuit is predicated on a series of allegations. Nonetheless, any seller identified as a Defendant in the case will be affected. Primarily, sellers will be faced with a temporary restraining order. Hallmark wants to gain approval of the restraining order to cease what they believe is trademark and copyright infringement. What does the TRO actually mean for sellers? Their online account or accounts will be frozen. Sellers won’t be able to touch any money they’ve earned from selling Hallmark goods. It’s possible that money from the sale of unrelated products could also be frozen. 

What Will Happen to Your Online Seller Accounts?

Are the Hallmark claims are within the realm of allegation? Yes, but it’s not as though nothing will happen to the named sellers. Any sort of judgment has not yet been dealt by the court. Regardless, you and your online selling business will be feeling the restraining order. This is where hiring an intellectual property attorney truly comes into the picture! The Defendants will need to respond to the court, negotiate with the Plaintiff, and strategize a resolution. That’s how you’ll keep your business going. The cost of getting a lawyer is worthwhile! If you’re not, as Hallmark says, working with a network of international counterfeiters, or otherwise doing what is alleged, speaking with an attorney is a no brainer. 

With the restraining order in play, sellers will have frozen online accounts. This occurs according to the regular sort of playbook for such Schedule A infringement suits. Hallmark is calling for the TRO so that they can put a hold on what they’ve determined to be out-of-control infringement. The allegations may or may not apply to each individual Defendant, it really all depends! No matter, if any seller chooses to ignore the lawsuit or remain inactive, the money in their frozen account could be awarded to Hallmark. Additionally, the court may issue a Default Judgment against any seller who fails to respond, which is a costly and more permanent outcome. 

How to Properly Negotiate a Settlement…

Is any given seller able to negotiate a direct settlement with Hallmark? Indeed, sellers may consider that as an option. There’s some appeal to this, in that Defendants may find that they can efficiently handle the lawsuit and move on. It won’t come without a cost, however! Most direct settlements that sellers make with big brands like Hallmark result in the seller taking a loss. On the whole, sellers are likely to only walk away from a direct settlement with about 60% of the money in their frozen account. Want to maintain possession of more than half your money? If for no other reason, this information may be enough to convince you why having an intellectual property attorney of your own is so important! 

In some instances, sellers might be intimidated by the lawsuit, especially if based outside of the United States. There may be concerns such as language barriers, or a lack of knowledge of the US legal system or the allegations themselves. Ignoring the lawsuit shouldn’t be seen as an option! Your attorney can respond, negotiate, strategize, and more on your behalf! We don’t want to see any seller have their hard-earned money given to Hallmark just because a seller didn’t take action. When you work with our team of attorneys, we’ll use our deep experience in the e-commerce sphere to create a unique resolution just for you. 

Hallmark’s Allegations of Trademark and Copyright Infringement

What follows is a selection of the allegations taken directly from the Hallmark lawsuit legal complaint. If you can, read through the entire legal complaint to gain insight into the trademark and copyright claims. Overall, Hallmark claims that the illegal actions of the Defendants have damaged their brand and cost them money. In response, Hallmark is seeking an injunction to stop the Defendants from continuing their selling behavior. Let’s take a look:

Hallmark has identified many fully interactive, e-commerce stores offering Unauthorized Products on online marketplace platforms such as Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Alibaba, Wish.com, Walmart, Etsy, DHgate, TikTok, and Temu including the e-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases.

Defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using the HALLMARK 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 websites relevant to consumer searches for Hallmark Products. Other e-commerce stores operating under Seller Aliases omit using the HALLMARK 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 Hallmark Products. 

Defendants typically operate under multiple seller aliases and payment accounts so that they can continue operation in spite of Hallmark’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 Hallmark. 

Contact our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC today for a free consultation! 

Download the legal complaint below:

Up next we will be discussing the Liverpool Football Club (LFC) Trademark Lawsuit.