Trademark Infringement Claims Result in NHL-Filed Lawsuit Against Sellers

NHL Enterprises, also known as the National Hockey League, has filed a federal infringement lawsuit to stop counterfeiting! The Plaintiff is a major sports organization that’s worth quite a lot of money, so their trademarks are incredibly valuable. To protect the value of various NHL marks, the company is suing online sellers. The issue that the NHL has isolated is that a group of sellers have banded together to sell unauthorized NHL branded products. 

If you’ve been named as a Defendant in the NHL trademark infringement lawsuit, team up with our firm! 

These trademark infringement cases all bear some similarity with one another. How so? In the way that the brand that’s alleging infringement sues multiple sellers at the same time. This is called a Schedule A lawsuit, meaning a list of Defendants are all sued together. NHL is in a position to sue the named sellers in such a lawsuit because of one principal claim. The Plaintiff has alleged that the Defendants, in a way, know each other. And, says they have worked together to actively infringe on protected marks. 

How Does the NHL Plan to Stop Sellers From Selling Products?

Now how does the NHL plan to stop sellers from getting more allegedly counterfeit goods on the market? Through the power of a temporary restraining order! The Plaintiff will have the court approve of a restraining order. That injunction will affect ALL of the Defendants, whether they actually worked with each other or not. And, whether or not the allegations are accurate to any given named seller in question. Unfortunately, the restraining order is rather indiscriminate in that sense. Due to the legally-filed information and belief formed by the NHL, the sellers are going to all be impacted. 

The efficacy of the restraining order is evident in the fact that it will temporarily block sellers from accessing the funds in their e-commerce accounts. Those online seller accounts, across platforms, will likely be completely frozen. The money in the accounts won’t be available to the very sellers who earned it. And while this sort of injunction will mainly affect earnings from the sale of NHL products, it may bleed over into other unrelated earnings, as well. This can mean some sellers will be shoved into a corner, facing bankruptcy. For other sellers, it may mean a less dire, but still incredibly inconvenient, reality. No matter how much this NHL lawsuit is going to impact your business, you can rely on Stockman & Poropat, PLLC. We’ll help you press on full steam ahead! 

NHL Intends to Stop Counterfeit Sales on E-Commerce Platforms

The NHL is intent on halting all counterfeit sales by the sellers identified in this particular lawsuit. The reason for that is the Plaintiff claims that the collective, unlawful actions of the Defendants have resulted in financial loss. Damage to the reputation that NHL has established with its consumer base is also part of the allegations. The notion that NHL wants to really hone in on is that the named sellers form a counterfeit network. And, the Plaintiff wants to essentially dismantle this “network” to the best of their ability so they don’t continue to take losses. 

The NHL Trademark Infringement Action is Absolutely Serious!

After you receive notice that the NHL is suing you for trademark infringement, you’ll want to provide a timely response to the court! This permits sellers to avoid a Default Judgment, wherein the entirety of their frozen assets may potentially be awarded to the Plaintiff. So all that money that you earned from selling goods, which the Plaintiff has now frozen, will be given to the entity that’s suing you? If you don’t respond, that’s a possibility! Rather than let inaction determine the outcome of your e-commerce business, take an active approach and retain one of our top-tier attorneys at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC! 

At our firm, we want you to feel taken care of and welcome to ask any questions you may have. We’re a team that has an unusually robust amount of experience in the e-commerce universe and we know how to deliver on legal strategies that truly work! Your business is just as important to us as it is to you, and we know just how frustrating and difficult this lawsuit can make things. Let us develop a creative legal strategy that’s tailor-made for your specific needs! We want to save you time and money so that you can continue on your path to great e-commerce success! 

The Allegations of Infringement Based on NHL’s Information and Belief…

Here’s a few selections lifted from the legal complaint itself, which you may download at the bottom of this page. These excerpts serve to broaden the context and shed light on some of the details of the NHL lawsuit: 

The fame of the NHL Trademarks and the success of Plaintiff’s athletic brand and affiliated variety of products, including apparel, caps, jewelry, toys, furniture, pennants, and bags, among others (defined above as “NHL Products”), has resulted in significant counterfeiting of NHL Trademarks. 

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

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 Plaintiff.  

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

Download the legal complaint below: 

Want to read more about trademark infringement cases? Check out how Mob Entertainment Once Again Sued Online Sellers Over Alleged Counterfeit Sales of Poppy Playtime Goods.