The Cure Trademark Lawsuit | Merch Traffic, LLC Sues Sellers

Merch Traffic, LLC has filed another lawsuit in federal court, claiming online sellers committed trademark infringement. This time, the lawsuit concerns the sale of products branded with The Cure trademark. The Cure is one of the most influential bands of all time, spanning genres from new wave, to gothic rock, and ultimately to pop music. It’s the popularity and global success of The Cure that’s made their branding unbelievably popular, perhaps even on par with The Beatles. 

Due to the value of The Cure trademark, many e-commerce sellers have offered The Cure products to consumers online. That’s exactly what brings us to the latest Merch Traffic, LLC lawsuit. The Plaintiff is suing the named sellers because they allege the Defendants have sold counterfeit products that infringe on The Cure trademark. 

Our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC has helped Defendants across the globe navigate lawsuits just like this one. Our attorneys possess an extraordinary level of experience in the e-commerce sphere. We know how to develop and execute a legal strategy based on your particular needs! Facing a trademark infringement lawsuit can be frustrating and intimidating – we’re here to ease your concerns and provide you with a game plan. It’s of the utmost importance to our team that we prioritize saving our clients both money and time! 

How Will The Cure IP Infringement Lawsuit Impact Your Business?

So what’s the deal? Just how is this Merch Traffic intellectual property infringement lawsuit going to impact the Defendants’ e-commerce operations? Well, because the Plaintiff alleges that counterfeit The Cure products were sold to consumers online, they’ll have the court approve of a restraining order. This temporary restraining order, or injunction, will freeze the Defendants’ online seller accounts. The reason why Merch Traffic wants a restraining order is to stop sellers from offering The Cure products. It’s their claim that the actions of the sellers have harmed their business. Primarily, the injunction will freeze the money earned from selling The Cure branded goods. But, there are instances where the temporary restraining order affects other funds, too. 

Obviously, this is not a matter to be taken lightly. The restraining order may be tying up hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases. However, regardless of the amount of money being frozen in a seller account, the lawsuit is without question a disruption in the normal flow of business. E-commerce operations, like any business, require money to operate. If the funds needed to run a business are inaccessible, that could be detrimental. So, figuring out a solution is key. Settlements often arise as part of this conversation and some sellers want to directly settle with Plaintiffs. We respect anyone’s decision to do as they see fit. But, the bulk of direct settlements between sellers and Plaintiffs in trademark lawsuits result in sellers receiving only 60% of the money in their frozen accounts. For this reason, it’s often beneficial for Defendants to work with an intellectual property attorney!  

Merch Traffic Sues Sellers For Sale of The Cure Products

Merch Traffic is suing the named online sellers as a whole because they believe that they’ve acted as a counterfeit network. The allegations of trademark infringement made by Merch Traffic identify the Defendants as having worked together to sell unauthorized products. The Plaintiff has described the sellers actions as that of a network based on certain tactics they say the sellers have used. These tactics range from utilizing digital marketing strategies that intentionally misrepresent a store’s legitimacy, to relying on the use of off-shore bank accounts. As a “Schedule A” infringement lawsuit, the Plaintiff is suing a group of sellers at one time, rather than each one on an individual basis. 

We truly urge all of the Defendants impacted by The Cure trademark lawsuit to respond to the court. If a seller doesn’t respond, they are likely to face a Default Judgment. This is a very real, federal intellectual property infringement lawsuit that will not resolve itself on its own. The presence of the lawsuit requires certain actions by the Defendants. Any Defendant interested in continuing their e-commerce operation must respond! 

Allegations Related to the Sale of The Cure Products to Consumers Online

Below, we’ll share a few sections of The Cure trademark lawsuit legal complaint. From these excerpts you may gain a better understanding of the infringement allegations. To understand the lawsuit from beginning to end, you may read through the entire legal complaint, which is available for download at the bottom of this page:

The success of The Cure brand has resulted in significant counterfeiting of THE CURE Trademark. Consequently, Plaintiff has an anti-counterfeiting program and regularly investigates suspicious e-commerce stores identified in proactive Internet sweeps and reported by consumers.

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

Defendants facilitate sales by designing the e- commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases so that they appear to unknowing consumers to be authorized online retailers, outlet stores, or wholesalers. E-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases appear sophisticated and accept payment in U.S. dollars and/or funds from U.S. bank accounts via credit cards, Alipay, Amazon Pay, and/or PayPal. E-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases often include content and images that make it very difficult for consumers to distinguish such stores from an authorized retailer.  

Defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using THE CURE Trademark 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 The Cure products. Other e-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases omit using THE CURE Trademark in the item title to evade enforcement efforts. 

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

Download the legal complaint below:

Up next we will be discussing the Tottenham Hotspur Limited Trademark Lawsuit.