Sellers Sued For Counterfeit | Lululemon Federal Trademark Lawsuit
The latest Lululemon federal trademark lawsuit has been filed! Online sellers can prepare themselves for the lawsuit by understanding just what Lululemon has alleged. The allegations of intellectual property infringement are not to be dismissed. Even if you know that you didn’t sell any sort of counterfeit Lululemon products, you’ll want to treat the lawsuit as a serious issue.
The newest Lululemon trademark infringement action will come with a temporary restraining order! When we say sellers can prepare themselves, the TRO is what they should prepare for. The restraining order will not discriminate – all sellers named in the lawsuit will be impacted by it. What if your e-commerce business didn’t sell counterfeit Lululemon goods to consumers? Since the Plaintiff believes you did just that and has gathered information to support that claim, you’ll have to respond to the lawsuit. The best defense in this type of situation is an informed one – protect your business by working with Stockman & Poropat, PLLC!
It’s imperative that the Defendants respond to the Lululemon lawsuit regarding trademark infringement. Those sellers who fail to submit a response could be hit with a Default Judgment. The court’s decision to issue a Default Judgment is more or less a permanent one. Overturning a DJ is extremely tough and can be an uphill battle, if not a losing one. Best to respond now while you have multiple options than delay and limit your options later. Interested in protecting your business from losing money? Respond to the lawsuit!
Why Is Lululemon Suing Online Sellers For Trademark Infringement?
Why is Lululemon suing online sellers for trademark infringement? It’s the Plaintiff’s belief that online sellers have acted as a counterfeit network. By working together, Lululemon says the Defendants have effectively sold unauthorized goods to consumers in the United States. According to the Plaintiff’s allegations, the online sellers’ collective infringing actions have cost Lululemon money. The damage to the Lululemon brand has been significant, per the Plaintiff. To regain the losses incurred due to the Defendants’ unauthorized sales, Lululemon has filed the federal IP infringement lawsuit. Given the depth of this legal scenario, it really makes a whole lot of sense for sellers to hire their own intellectual property attorney!
Lululemon Trademark Action: Understand the Allegations
For further context, we’ll take a look at a few excerpts from the Lululemon trademark infringement lawsuit legal complaint. We recommend sellers read through the entire legal complaint to understand the full breadth of the allegations:
The success of the Lululemon brand has resulted in significant counterfeiting of the LULULEMON Trademarks. Consequently, Lululemon has a worldwide anti-counterfeiting program and regularly investigates suspicious e-commerce stores identified in proactive Internet sweeps and reported by consumers. In recent years, Lululemon has identified numerous fully interactive, e-commerce stores, including those operating under the Seller Aliases, which were offering for sale and/or selling Counterfeit Lululemon Products on online marketplace platforms such as Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Alibaba, Walmart, Wish.com, Etsy, DHgate, TikTok, and Temu, including the e-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases.
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 Lululemon’s website or another authorized retailer. Lululemon has not licensed or authorized Defendants to use any of the LULULEMON Trademarks, and none of the Defendants are authorized retailers of genuine Lululemon Products.
Defendants, without any authorization or license from Lululemon, have knowingly and willfully used and continue to use the LULULEMON Trademarks in connection with the advertisement, distribution, offering for sale, and sale of Counterfeit Lululemon Products into the United States and Illinois over the Internet.
The Restraining Order is Temporary, But the Effects May Be Long Lasting
Now, we mentioned that the restraining order is temporary, which is true. But, though the injunction isn’t going to be in effect long term, the effects could be. Depending on the status of your e-commerce operation, the TRO may deeply disrupt your business. It could even bankrupt some online sellers! The temporary restraining order freezes the sellers’ online accounts. If you’re considering withdrawing the money in your account, once the TRO is issued, you won’t be able to. That’s essentially the point of Lululemon filing the lawsuit. The Plaintiff freezes your account, which they say is stacked with counterfeit earnings, and then they’ll attempt to settle with you for a portion of that money.
As a seller named in the Lululemon trademark lawsuit, you may say, “I can’t afford to hire an IP attorney.” We’re here to inform you that you may not be able to afford not hiring a lawyer. By and large, those Defendants in Schedule A infringement lawsuits who choose to directly settle with the Plaintiff will lose money. On average, direct settlements in IP infringement lawsuits between sellers and brands leave Defendants with only 60% of the money in their frozen accounts. Do you believe that you deserve just about half of the earnings in your accounts? If you don’t feel that sort of outcome would be fair, hiring an attorney is the way to go! Our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC has helped sellers around the world get the resolutions they deserve. We’re excited to offer you the same.
Contact our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC today for a free initial consultation!
Download the legal complaint below:
Up next we will be discussing the latest Rubik’s Intellectual Property Infringement Lawsuit.
