Lululemon Alleges Sellers Infringed on Trademarks
Well, yet again a major brand has filed a trademark lawsuit aimed at online sellers. Why was this new Lululemon Schedule A infringement lawsuit filed? To stop what the Plaintiff believes is abundant sales of counterfeit products. The so-described illicit, infringing activity occurred on platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Wish.com, Walmart, Temu, and similar platforms. Are you one of the sellers being sued by Lululemon? Did you know that you’re entitled to get your own legal representation?!
Are you a seller named as a Defendant in this trademark infringement lawsuit? You can and even should retain your own intellectual property attorney. You might be based in China or the United States or an entirely different country. No matter where you operate as an e-commerce seller. You should hire your own IP lawyer to work with you to deal with the Lululemon lawsuit. The suit presents a significant roadblock to your normal operation – the temporary restraining order. Once the Plaintiff gets approval from the court, the restraining order will go into effect. Then, the money in your seller account or accounts will be frozen. Should you be toying with the idea of doing nothing in response, or abandoning the issue, guess what? You’ll give all of that money you earned to the Plaintiff!
How Sellers Should React to the Trademark Lawsuit
As a seller, being sued by a company like Lululemon can be a big blow to your online selling business. E-commerce operators don’t always have an abundance of funds and when an infringement lawsuit happens it can make many businesses vulnerable. To be sure, even though the lawsuit consists of allegations of counterfeit, the restraining order has an actual impact on daily business operations. We believe online sellers like you have a right to a reasonable and fair outcome. To that end, we’ll do everything we can to move your business into the future by responding and negotiating for you.
As we noted, the Lululemon infringement case is built on several allegations of counterfeiting. And precisely what is the Plaintiff alleging the named sellers did? Among the claims put forth, sellers have been accused of acting as a network of counterfeiters. As a said counterfeiting network, the Defendants allegedly engage in multiple common tactics to increase their chances of getting away with deliberate infringement.
Lululemon Allegations of Intellectual Property Infringement
Below, let’s take a look at a selection of the claims as they’re written in the legal complaint:
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.
Many Defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using the LULULEMON 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 Lululemon products.
Counterfeiters such as Defendants typically operate under multiple seller aliases and payment accounts so that they can continue operation in spite of Lululemon’s enforcement. E-commerce store operators like Defendants maintain off-shore bank accounts and regularly move funds from their financial accounts to off-shore accounts outside the jurisdiction of this Court to avoid payment of any monetary judgment awarded to Lululemon.
Are you unsure where you should start in terms of handling the lawsuit? Begin with reading the legal complaint in full. Try to understand the allegations to the best of your ability. Once you’ve gathered the information, you can then better comprehend the gravity of the situation. Also, when you have your initial consultation with an attorney, such as a member of our team, any questions you may have can be answered! We want you to make the best decisions possible for your online selling business. Better to be informed than not when it comes to infringement lawsuits!
As a Federal Lawsuit, Of Course It’s Serious!
Now, for any seller who wants to ignore the lawsuit, we must urge you not to! A response is needed. Without a response, like we said the frozen money in your seller account will be ultimately rewarded to the Plaintiff. What’s more, the choice to not submit a response could result in a Default Judgment, costing you additional money. The value and longevity of your e-commerce business can be affected by this lawsuit, so take it seriously!
With the temporary restraining order approved, Lululemon will be applying some pressure on the sellers they’re suing. Some may want to settle directly with the Plaintiff. The benefit there would be that it may be quick. The downside of a direct settlement, not negotiated by an attorney on your behalf, is that you could lose a large chunk of your money! In most instances, when a Plaintiff in an infringement lawsuit settles with a seller, they’ll give the seller just about 60% of their money. That’s more than half of the money you earned! If you’re not interested in that sort of outcome, reach out to our team today!
What should sellers do to negotiate the greatest available settlement? Hire an intellectual property attorney! Our lawyers at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC have worked with countless online sellers dealing with Schedule A infringement lawsuits. Our laser-focused experience in this area of the law and e-commerce has helped numerous sellers all over the world.
Contact our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC today for a free consultation!
Download the legal complaint below:
Up next we will be discussing the Vogue Trademark Infringement Lawsuit.
