Online Sellers Sued by Dior in Schedule A Lawsuit: Trademark Infringement Claims

The major luxury goods company Christian Dior is suing multiple online sellers in a new federal Schedule A lawsuit! The brand has filed many similar lawsuits against e-commerce sellers in the past for counterfeiting. The content of this particular Dior lawsuit may not differ too widely from the previous suits. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less of a big deal for the Defendants! 

At Stockman & Poropat, PLLC, our firm cares about online sellers and their overall success on the marketplace. It’s our passion to ensure that e-commerce operators facing issues get the representation they need. We want you to continue reaching great heights as an online seller. At the end of the day, we don’t want to see any seller get sidelined due to an infringement lawsuit. But, again, the lawsuit must be taken seriously and you should definitely respond! If you don’t respond, you can get further entrenched in difficulties, like if a Default Judgment is issued. Respond and take action and get back to selling goods and making customers happy! 

Since Dior has filed this lawsuit, sellers may be curious about the allegations of infringement. As in, are all of the sellers going to have the same level of responsibility toward the claims? Or, is every seller going to have a different measure of responsibility? Who is going to be affected and how? And, if a seller hasn’t actually done what Dior alleges they did, in the way of counterfeit sales, what then? These are all relevant and solid probing inquiries! If you identify with any of the concerns noted in the aforementioned questions, then Stockman & Poropat, PLLC is the firm for you! 

Stockman & Poropat, PLLC Can Deliver an Individualized Legal Strategy

Each of the e-commerce businesses getting sued by Dior will have to develop an individualized legal strategy. While the allegations affect the Defendants on more broad stroke terms, the outcome or resolution will be per seller. Our team cares deeply about providing top notch legal services for online sellers. We’ll use our unmatched and intricate knowledge of the e-commerce world to build a strategy that’s effective. So you can ultimately save money and time. The Plaintiff has a legal team, so why shouldn’t you?! 

There is a way in which all of the sellers will be similarly impacted by the lawsuit: the temporary restraining order! Dior will have the court approve of and issue a temporary restraining order. And they’ll do so to ostensibly protect the Plaintiff’s marks from further damage. This method of providing Dior with injunctive relief is commonplace when it comes to such federal intellectual property infringement suits. Though the solution to the issues caused by the lawsuit will fluctuate depending on the seller in question, the sellers as a whole will be hit with the restraining order. Are you concerned that this will hurt your e-commerce business? That’s a completely valid position to hold, given the circumstances. As an online seller facing these allegations, protecting your business with your own attorney is plainly a sensible decision. 

The Temporary Injunction Will Freeze Seller Accounts

In case you weren’t aware, the temporary injunction will impose a freeze on the Defendants’ online seller accounts. You’ll be prevented from touching and/or accessing the money in those accounts earned from selling Dior products. The reason behind the Plaintiff’s wish to file the lawsuit and get the restraining order? To stop the losses they’ve already incurred. At least, that’s what Dior alleges. The brief version of the allegations in totality is: Dior identified what they believe is a counterfeit network and they want to shut it down. 

Counterfeit “Network” Identified in Latest Dior Trademark Action

As you noted at the beginning of this article, this is Dior’s latest Schedule A infringement lawsuit. What that means is, the Plaintiff is suing the “network” of sellers they’ve identified, instead of each seller as an individual entity. Dior contends that these sellers know each other and regularly communicate so as to effectively get away with selling unauthorized goods. Is this true, accurate, or relevant to the Defendants’ actual behavior as online sellers? Once we’ve reached the point where that question is being posed, it’s likely time to consider retaining an attorney! 

You don’t want to be accepting blame for actions you didn’t commit, or paying a penalty to Dior when you don’t have to. Accepting a direct settlement will also probably leave you wanting more, as they tend to hover at around 60% of the money in your frozen accounts. So if you don’t want to give over your hard-earned funds to Dior based on allegations alone, give us a shout! 

Christian Dior’s Allegations of Intellectual Property Infringement

Here follows several excerpts from the legal complaint associated with this latest Dior trademark lawsuit: 

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. Dior has not licensed or authorized Defendants to use any of the CHRISTIAN DIOR Trademarks, and none of the Defendants are authorized retailers of genuine Dior Products. 

Many Defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using the CHRISTIAN DIOR 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 Dior Products. 

Even though Defendants operate under multiple fictitious aliases, the e-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases often share unique identifiers, such as templates with common design elements that intentionally omit any contact information or other information for identifying Defendants or other Seller Aliases they operate or use.  

Defendants’ unauthorized use of the CHRISTIAN DIOR Trademarks in connection with the advertising, distribution, offering for sale, and sale of Unauthorized Dior Products, including the sale of Unauthorized Dior Products into the United States, including Illinois, is likely to cause and has caused confusion, mistake, and deception by and among consumers and is irreparably harming Dior. 

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

Download the legal complaint below: