Trademark Infringement Lawsuit Filed by Audi
If you and your e-commerce business have been named in the latest Audi federal lawsuit, you should take this situation very seriously! Maybe you’ve already glanced at the legal complaint associated with the case. Each of the Defendants ought to dig into the allegations in order to fully grasp the intricacies of the matter. In short, Audi believes that online sellers have worked together to illegally sell counterfeit products on the marketplace.
Audi’s Allegations of Counterfeiting
Below, we’ll share a few excerpts from the Audi lawsuit legal complaint. As a named seller, spend a decent amount of time reviewing the allegations of infringement. This will benefit you in terms of understanding, as well as be helpful when consulting with legal counsel:
On information and belief, Defendants, either individually or jointly, operate one or more e-commerce stores under the Seller Aliases listed in Schedule A attached hereto. Tactics used by Defendants to conceal their identities and the full scope of their operation make it virtually impossible for Plaintiff to learn Defendants’ true identities and the exact interworking of their counterfeit network.
The success of the Audi brand has resulted in significant counterfeiting of the Audi Trademarks. In recent years, Audi has identified many fully interactive, e-commerce stores offering Counterfeit Audi 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 are working to knowingly and willfully import, distribute, offer for sale, and sell Counterfeit Audi Products in the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences. Defendants, without any authorization or license from Audi, have knowingly and willfully used and continue to use the Audi Trademarks in connection with the advertisement, distribution, offering for sale, and sale of Counterfeit Audi Products into the United States and Illinois over the Internet.
Retain an Intellectual Property Attorney Today
Our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC is equipped with the experience required to handle intellectual property infringement cases like this. We’ve worked out successful resolutions for online sellers all around the world! We will develop a legal strategy for you based on the particulars of your e-commerce business. Our team knows just how much a trademark infringement lawsuit can affect online sellers. As such, our goal is to make the process of addressing the lawsuit as painless as possible. During our strategizing stage, we’ll consider all relevant factors and seek to save you time and money!
Online sellers affected by infringement lawsuits may attempt to work out a resolution with the Plaintiff without an attorney. We would not recommend any of the Defendants do so and that’s not just because we’re a law firm! One of the biggest reasons why the Defendants may not benefit from negotiating with the Plaintiff on their own is that they risk losing money. Our team doesn’t want to see that needlessly happen! Additionally, the details of each sellers’ e-commerce operation will be different, depending on the Defendant. Because of that, you’ll want to have an intellectual property lawyer examine your relationship to the allegations. From that point, you’ll be more equipped to deal with Audi, instead of charging at it on your own.
To avoid losing money unnecessarily, online sellers must provide a response to the court! Anyone who chooses or otherwise fails to respond could set themselves up to be the recipient of a Default Judgment. And with this alternative outcome, Defendants will likely have to pay more money and contend with an irreversible result. It’s easy enough to avoid, just be sure to submit a response. If you require assistance with drafting that response, our team is here for you!
What Options Are Available to Online Sellers? | Audi Trademark Infringement
To hone in on what we mentioned earlier, online sellers named in this Schedule A lawsuit will benefit from retaining legal counsel. In practical terms, a lawyer will greatly aid any of the Defendants because of the temporary restraining order that Audi will have the court approve. When the temporary injunction begins, the online seller accounts belonging to the Defendants will be frozen. Indeed, the Defendants won’t have access to the money in their accounts! Needless to say, this isn’t the best thing for business. When encountering this legal matter, sellers should try to get a resolution that works best for them. And that’s where our team comes in. We’ll negotiate with Audi on your behalf, clear you of any accusations of unlawful wrongdoing, and get you the resolution you ultimately deserve.
You may have guessed it, but Audi is seeking the aforementioned temporary restraining order because they believe that’s the appropriate decision to make. As described in the legal complaint, the online sellers named in the lawsuit allegedly acted as a counterfeit network. As such, even though all of this allegedly occurred, the Plaintiff states they took a financial and reputational loss. In order to put a stop to those losses, Audi wants the restraining order. Simultaneously, the brand will potentially use the injunction to pressure the Defendants into settling quickly, without an attorney. We urge you to deeply consider all of your options before making any sort of settlement!
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 newest Chrome Hearts Trademark Infringement Action.
