Crye Precision Sues Sellers For Trademark Infringement
Crye Precision, a company widely known as a leading manufacturer of military and law enforcement gear, is suing online sellers! According to Crye Precision, several e-commerce operators are cashing in on the reputation of Crye Precision products. The Plaintiff claims that the Defendants have sold counterfeit, trademark-infringing goods to consumers in the United States.
Here’s a snippet of the allegations of infringement, excerpted from the legal complaint tied to case 24-cv-06040:
The success of the Crye Precision brand has resulted in significant counterfeiting of the CRYE PRECISION Trademarks. 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, and Temu, 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.
Many Defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using the CRYE PRECISION 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 Crye Precision Products.
Defendants, without any authorization or license from Plaintiff, have jointly and severally, knowingly and willfully used and continue to use the CRYE PRECISION Trademarks in connection with the advertisement, distribution, offering for sale, and sale of Counterfeit Products into the United States and Illinois over the Internet.
Respond to the Court! | Crye Precision Infringement Lawsuit
Once any of the online sellers being sued by Crye Precision are notified of the lawsuit, they’ll need to respond to the court! A response is not really optional, you’ll only benefit by submitting one. If you don’t provide a response, the court could then hit you and your business with a Default Judgment. If that were to happen, it’ll cost you and it’s not that easy to overturn!
The temporary restraining order (TRO) that accompanies the lawsuit will likely be the most frustrating aspect for online sellers. What do we mean by “TRO”? Crye Precision will request that the court approve a restraining order. When that’s in place, the Defendants won’t be able to access the money in their seller accounts. The funds in those accounts will be frozen! That’s purportedly to stop the sellers from any further infringement upon the protected marks. The TRO also serves another function. Which is to say, once the freeze on the sellers accounts goes into effect, it may incentivize the sellers to reach a settlement with the Plaintiff!
Crye Precision Schedule A Lawsuit
In a sense, that’s how Schedule A infringement lawsuits such as this tend to play out. A big brand, like Crye Precision, sues a group of online sellers at the same time. When the restraining order freezes the sellers’ accounts, then the Plaintiff takes action. They’ll attempt to reach direct settlements with as many sellers as they can. Part of Crye Precision’s strategy with the lawsuit is to regain some of their losses by way of settlements.
If you’re a Defendant being sued by Crye Precision, a settlement might sound like an easy fix. You directly settle with the Plaintiff, get access to your frozen account, and move on with selling as normal. You wouldn’t be entirely wrong in making those assumptions. One major downside of settling directly with brands in Schedule A infringement cases is that those settlements leave sellers with just a mere portion of their money. The bulk of Schedule A direct settlements provide sellers with around 60% of the money they themselves earned! That’s not exactly the kind of resolution you deserve.
Should Sellers Hire an Intellectual Property Attorney? (Yes!)
How do sellers address the trademark infringement lawsuit and come out of it with the best possible resolution? With the help of an intellectual property attorney! If you’re based in China or another country other than the US, you’ll definitely want to rely on an experienced attorney. Often enough, sellers get intimidated when infringement lawsuits are filed. Either due to a lack of knowledge of the legal system, the language, or because they don’t believe or know they can even hire a lawyer. You certainly can and you probably should! An intellectual property attorney can respond to the court once you’ve received notice of the lawsuit. If there’s any details regarding your business practices that can be illuminated to clear you of any wrongdoing – your lawyer can bring that to light. And, your attorney can negotiate the most advantageous settlement between you and the Plaintiff.
As a seller named in the Crye Precision lawsuit, you’re likely extremely frustrated by the disruption. We thoroughly understand! Due to the suit and the restraining order, you could lose a lot of money. The reputation that your business has built up with your customers may be impacted. The sooner you respond and take care of the allegations made against your business, the better. And, even though the cost of hiring an attorney may seem like even more of a strain, it’s really the most effective method for getting your account reinstated and returning to regular business.
If your business is being sued by Crye Precision for trademark infringement, contact our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC today for a free consultation!
Download the legal complaint below:
Up next we will be discussing the Ralph Lauren Trademark and Copyright Infringement Lawsuit.
