Hallmark Licensing Trademark and Copyright Lawsuit

Hallmark Licensing, owner of the Hallmark trademarks, is suing online sellers for infringement. The brand has taken said legal action because several online sellers have sold unauthorized products with the Hallmark name. Among the goods in question are greeting cards, clothing, and entertainment products. 

Here’s a selection of what Hallmark alleges the e-commerce businesses they’re suing supposedly did: 

Defendants create e-commerce stores operating under one or more Seller Aliases advertising, offering for sale, and selling Unauthorized Products to unknowing consumers. E-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases share unique identifiers establishing a logical relationship between them and that Defendants’ counterfeiting operation arises out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences. 

Defendants attempt to avoid and mitigate liability by operating under one or more Seller Aliases to conceal both their identities and the full scope and interworking of their counterfeiting operation. Hallmark is forced to file this action to combat Defendants’ counterfeiting of the registered trademarks and infringement of its registered copyrighted works, as well as to protect unknowing consumers from purchasing potentially dangerous Unauthorized Products over the internet. 

Defendants attempt to avoid and mitigate liability by operating under one or more Seller Aliases to conceal both their identities and the full scope and interworking of their counterfeiting operation. Hallmark is forced to file this action to combat Defendants’ counterfeiting of the registered trademarks and infringement of its registered copyrighted works, as well as to protect unknowing consumers from purchasing potentially dangerous Unauthorized Products over the internet. 

Stockman & Poropat, PLLC Can Create a Legal Strategy For You!

The team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC is highly skilled in crafting client-specific legal strategies related to infringement lawsuits. We consider it a point of pride that we’ve successfully helped numerous online sellers around the world tackle such lawsuits. In the end, we’re interested in what you’re interested in – ensuring you can both keep and grow your business. Schedule A trademark and/or copyright lawsuits can significantly derail an e-commerce regular day-to-day operation. And we want to step in to work with you! We can help get your business back on the right track, full-steam ahead toward the future.  

Just what makes a federal trademark and copyright lawsuit so disruptive and frustrating? If nothing else, it’s the temporary restraining order that Hallmark will inflict on your seller accounts. Hallmark will gain approval from the court to enable this restraining order. The Defendants will all be affected, because you’ll no longer have access to the money in your accounts. When the accounts are frozen, so are the monies in the accounts, which can affect sellers to varying degrees. Some may be able to withstand the blow with relative discomfort, and others could potentially be facing bankruptcy. The reason for the lawsuit in the first place? It’s due to Hallmark’s belief that the named sellers intentionally infringed on their intellectual property. Even if you or another seller getting sued didn’t actually do this, because of the lawsuit you’ll have to respond. 

How the Temporary Restraining Order Will Affect Your Business

Sellers may see the lawsuit as such an inconvenience and disruption that they might seek the quickest way to move on. A direct settlement with Hallmark, between the seller and the Plaintiff, could be just that. If you don’t hire an intellectual property attorney and wish to settle with Hallmark? You can handle negotiations on your own and go from there. These sorts of settlements typically provide sellers with about half of the frozen money in their account. The remainder of that money, which sellers earned, is awarded to the Plaintiff. Of course, we respect whatever decision sellers make. But when you hire an IP lawyer you’ll have a much greater chance at walking away with more. That is, versus attempting to settle with the Plaintiff yourself. 

There’s really no scenario in which the Hallmark trademark and copyright lawsuit doesn’t impact your online selling business. E-commerce sellers will have to address the temporary restraining order and the lawsuit itself to move on. Any seller who doesn’t respond could risk letting the Plaintiff get 100% of the money in your frozen account. Which would be incredibly unfair. You’ll want to maintain possession of your hard-earned capital, as best you can, so you can continue selling products to consumers. Rather than feel the need to bend to the will of the Plaintiff due to the injunction, you may want to hire an attorney and work with them to find a resolution that actually benefits you and your business. 

How to Address Hallmark’s Allegations of Infringement

Hallmark Properties may be suing you and the other sellers for allegedly selling infringing products, but that doesn’t mean you have to assume your own guilt. The depth of the allegation isn’t uniformly applied to each Defendant in the same exact way. The business practices of your Co-Defendant will likely not be identical to yours. And so, the resolution and legal strategy that your e-commerce operation will require will also be differentiated from the alleged “network” that comprises all of the Defendants. What our team can offer is the individualized care required to navigate this lawsuit with success. Our lawyers are here for you, to listen to you, and to make your online selling business the greatest it can be! 

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

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Up next we will be discussing the latest FCA Trademark Infringement Lawsuit.