General Motors Sues Online Sellers For Alleged Counterfeit Sales

General Motors has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in federal court after the brand identified an apparent counterfeit network. Are you one of the e-commerce sellers named in the latest GM lawsuit? The brand well-known for its automotive products claims that an overwhelming amount of counterfeit sales have been made online. Per the Plaintiff, this “network” of online sellers have worked in collaboration to successfully offer consumers these unauthorized goods.

The General Motors intellectual property infringement case asserts that the e-commerce sellers are familiar with one another and worked together to sell counterfeit products. A large portion of GM’s allegations of infringement are based on the idea that the Defendants disguise their actual identities. By obfuscating their identities, says the Plaintiff, the named sellers position themselves to evade enforcement. Due to these very serious allegations of counterfeit and subterfuge, it’ll likely be in your best interest to retain one of our attorneys at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC!

See here, this is what’s known as a Schedule A trademark infringement lawsuit. The most practical way to contextualize the meaning of that is with the details of the lawsuit itself. In a word, a “Schedule A” trademark action means that a group of online sellers get sued at the same time, as opposed to individually. Again, General Motors has identified the counterfeit sales within the scope of what they’ve called a “network.” So, all of the Defendants will be equally impacted by the lawsuit. And what’s the manifestation of that impact going to look like? A temporary restraining order!!

Stockman & Poropat, PLLC is Passionate About Protecting Your E-Commerce Business

At Stockman & Poropat, PLLC, we’re passionate about protecting e-commerce businesses! No one at our firm wants to see an online seller’s reputation damaged. Nor would we like to see your online selling business lose a troublesome amount of money because of the trademark action. When you work with our team, we’ll use our world-class experience in the e-commerce legal sphere to get you the resolution you deserve!

Once approved by the court and in effect, the temporary restraining order will freeze all relevant seller accounts. That means YOUR seller accounts will be frozen! This “freeze” applies to the money in those accounts, rendering it inaccessible. GM’s goal with filing the lawsuit in the first place is to stop the sale of counterfeit goods. The injunction is basically the meat-and-potatoes of the Plaintiff’s power play. By freezing sellers’ money and accounts, General Motors positions itself to apply pressure and reach settlements. Their aim is to recoup the losses they’ve taken due to the alleged counterfeiting. It’s for these reasons that affected sellers ought to deeply consider hiring an intellectual property attorney!

Consider Hiring an Attorney Over Reaching a Direct Settlement

Accepting a direct settlement offer from General Motors can be tricky for the impacted online sellers. The average direct settlement comes in at around 60% of the frozen money in a given seller’s online account. That could mean that you’d be handing over about half the amount of money in your account to the Plaintiff, just because of allegations. Rather than accept the allegations and take a substantial hit, you may want to invest in an attorney!

In a sense, investing in Stockman & Poropat, PLLC will save your business money in the long run. You don’t want to get ensnared in any kind of complicated mess that may come with a Default Judgment, for example. You also probably don’t want to have to file for bankruptcy or otherwise shut down your business. If you’re keen on powering through this e-commerce hiccup and getting back to selling, reach out to our team!

The need to respond to the lawsuit is certainly there, because if you don’t respond you may face further complications. The Default Judgment is one of the results you may have to accept if you fail to respond! We strongly urge against ignoring the lawsuit and not responding, as it may cause your business undue hardship. Often enough, Default Judgments are unable to be overturned, as well. When you receive notice of the General Motors lawsuit, definitely respond in a timely manner. And, if you have any questions or concerns related to the response or the lawsuit more broadly, discuss it with us at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC.

General Motors’ Claims of Trademark Infringement

Here are a few excerpts from the GM lawsuit legal complaint: 

In recent years, GM has identified many fully interactive, e-commerce stores offering Counterfeit GM Products on online marketplace platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Temu, including the e-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases. The Seller Aliases target consumers in this Judicial District and throughout the United States. 

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. On information and belief, Plaintiff has not licensed or authorized Defendants to use any of the GM Trademarks, and none of the Defendants are authorized retailers of genuine GM Products. 

Counterfeit GM Products for sale by the Seller Aliases bear similar irregularities and indicia of being counterfeit to one another, suggesting that the Counterfeit GM Products were manufactured by and come from a common source and that Defendants are interrelated. 

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

Download the legal complaint below:

Hungry for more e-commerce related content? Check out another article about trademark infringement: Online Sellers Sued as “Network” by Rainbow Friends