Sellers Sued for Infringement | Tory Burch Trademark Lawsuit
Have you been notified that Tory Burch is suing you for trademark infringement! Any e-commerce operator in such a position needs to provide a response to the lawsuit. Though the claims made by the Plaintiff are mere allegations, sellers must respond. If you decide not to respond or otherwise fail to do so, the court may issue a Default Judgment. We don’t want to see any of the sellers named get hit with a Default Judgment. That will be a costly and difficult-to-overturn decision, which is somewhat avoidable. No matter if you disagree with Tory Burch’s allegations, you still have to reply to the suit. If you need any assistance with the lawsuit, contact our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC!
Build an Effective Legal Strategy
Do the allegations of trademark infringement put forward by Tory Burch equate to some type of guilt? Not really, because the Plaintiff has yet to prove any of the unlawful actions cited. Because nothing has been proven, none of the sellers are considered guilty of infringement at this stage. Even so, these are very serious claims filed in the context of a federal court! Which is why the Defendants should very carefully consider their strategy. To help with building out an effective legal strategy, you’ll want to work with an intellectual property attorney.
As we’ve seen with many other Schedule A lawsuits, Tory Burch is suing sellers to stop the infringement. The Plaintiff states that the sellers’ actions have caused damage to the brand. To halt that damage, Tory Burch filed the lawsuit. What does the Plaintiff claim the sellers did? Essentially, the allegations are that a group of sellers formed a network to successfully sell unauthorized Tory Burch products to consumers. All of the claims of trademark infringement are detailed in the legal complaint, which you can download at the bottom of this page.
Tory Burch Allegations of Counterfeit Sales
To give readers a more well-rounded idea of the details of the Tory Burch lawsuit, we can turn to the legal complaint:
Tory Burch has identified many fully interactive, e-commerce stores offering Counterfeit Tory Burch Products on online marketplace platforms such as Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Alibaba, Wish.com, Walmart, Etsy, DHgate, Temu, and TikTok, including the e-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases. The Seller Aliases target consumers in this Judicial District and throughout the United States.
Counterfeiters hedge against the risk of being caught and having their websites taken down from an e-commerce platform by preemptively establishing multiple virtual store- fronts.5 Since platforms generally do not require a seller on a third-party marketplace to identify the underlying business entity, counterfeiters can have many different profiles that can appear unrelated even though they are commonly owned and operated.
Defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using the TORY BURCH 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 Tory Burch Products.
Expect Tory Burch to Issue a Temporary Restraining Order
Due to the filing of the lawsuit, sellers can expect Tory Burch to appeal to the court to issue a temporary restraining order. This injunction will freeze the Defendants’ seller accounts, blocking access to the money contained in them. This is an obvious disruption to any e-commerce seller’s operation. But it could devastate some! The restraining order could even shove some sellers into the shadow of bankruptcy. Regardless of how vulnerable the TRO may make your business, you deserve to find a resolution that is sensible and fair. That’s where Stockman & Poropat, PLLC comes in! We don’t want to see any of the Defendants have to shut down or get completely thrown off track. We’ll do all we can to ensure the resolution you get is closest to what you need to continue as a successful online seller.
Work With Stockman & Poropat, PLLC and Save Money!
Some of the Defendants might want to consider alternatives to working with an intellectual property attorney. Fair enough, but you should truly weigh all the possible outcomes. We want to let you know that if you choose to settle directly with the Plaintiff, you could lose a significant amount of money. What are we referring to? When the restraining order is in effect and your seller accounts are frozen, the Plaintiff is aiming to get as much of that money as they can. Per Tory Burch, the money in sellers’ frozen accounts was earned by counterfeit sales. If you settle with the Plaintiff, it’s likely you will only keep 60% of the money in your account. That’s nearly half! At Stockman & Poropat, PLLC, our attorneys and incredible team will work hard to get you more than just half your money.
Are you being sued by Tory Burch for trademark infringement? 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 Daimler Trademark Infringement Lawsuit.