General Motors Files Trademark Infringement Lawsuit

Greetings online sellers! Have you received a surprise notice from General Motors (GM) regarding trademark infringement allegations? E-commerce operators who get these legal notices are not always sure exactly why. The complaint tied to the lawsuit explains that you and the other Defendants “Identified on Schedule ‘A’” have sold counterfeit GM products online. The reason? To be determined. Regardless, counterfeiting allegations are real and serious and can affect your business. 

General Motors is one of the largest corporations in the entire world. Their products and name are incredibly valuable. Sadly, the success and legacy of the brand attracts people with bad intentions who do want to cash in on their name by way of infringement. The illegal sale of counterfeit products is a profitable endeavor, especially online. Infringement can cost businesses loads of money, in terms of sales lost and legal expenses. Thus, because GM believes counterfeiting has occurred, they are taking legal action. 

Reasons Why Businesses Were Accused of Trademark Infringement

The reasons why you’ve been accused of trademark infringement can vary. And, you’ll very likely experience the impact of a temporary restraining order (TRO), which freezes your account assets. You won’t be able to touch the money you’ve made from the sale of GM goods. Why? General Motors states: 

Defendants have targeted sales to Illinois residents by setting up and operating e-commerce stores that target United States consumers using one or more Seller Aliases, offer shipping to the United States, including Illinois, accept payment in U.S. dollars and/or funds from U.S. bank accounts and, on information and belief, have sold products using infringing and counterfeit versions of GM’s federally registered trademarks to residents of Illinois. 

The fact that an allegation put forward by General Motors can have such a negative real-world affect on your business is absolutely frustrating! You may have worked extremely hard to sell what you believed to be authentic products in a wildly competitive marketplace. And now, after you’ve earned some money, all of a sudden your business is suffering from a restraining order. It’s not always a fair scenario. 

Responding to the Lawsuit Saves Your Business Money

Importantly, you need to respond to the lawsuit! Don’t misinterpret the legal notice you’ve received. An actual federal lawsuit claiming trademark infringement was filed in Illinois. If you fail to respond? The money that’s frozen in your account will be awarded to the Plaintiff. Talk about unfair! In the long run, your business will be much better off if you take your own legal action. We strongly recommend not just walking away or abandoning the lawsuit! That’s basically a guarantee that you’ll have to deal with a total loss, which is avoidable. 

What are some of General Motors’ counterfeit allegations? 

Defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using one or more GM 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 GM Products. 

E-commerce store operators like Defendants commonly engage in fraudulent conduct when registering the Seller Aliases by providing false, misleading and/or incomplete information to e-commerce platforms to prevent discovery of their true identities and the scope of their e-commerce operation. 

E-commerce store operators like Defendants are in constant communication with each other and regularly participate in QQ.com chat rooms and through websites such as sellerdefense.cn and kuajingvs.com regarding tactics for operating multiple accounts, evading detection, pending litigation, and potential new lawsuits. 

The Drawbacks of Reaching a Settlement

When faced with a temporary restraining order, online sellers sometimes want to just settle with the Plaintiff and move on. You can definitely do that! E-commerce operators in infringement lawsuits settle with brands like General Motors quite often. It doesn’t always work out the best for sellers, though. Settlements in Schedule A counterfeit cases permit Defendants to keep only a portion of their money. The remaining amount will be given to General Motors. That’s one of the reasons the federal court in Illinois has seen such a dramatic rise in Schedule A lawsuits – it’s good for big corporations. If you seek the aid of an intellectual property attorney, you can find a solution that works better for you! 

If you’ve sold GM products on Temu, Etsy, Walmart, Wish.com, or Amazon – then you might be dealing with this lawsuit and its accompanying restraining order. Have you necessarily committed infringement or sold counterfeit goods? Well, General Motors has made allegations, which isn’t proof that your business did anything. You still need to act so that you can get back to selling online without more interruptions. And, you’ll want to reach a resolution that’s in your interest, rather than that which works for the Plaintiff. 

Stockman & Poropat, PLLC can help you find a favorable resolution! Our team of intellectual property attorneys are passionate about helping online sellers just like you. Contact us today for a free consultation! 

Download the legal complaint below:

Up next we will be discussing the Marc Jacobs Infringement Lawsuit.