Wood Expressions Sues Sellers for Alleged Counterfeiting

Wood Expressions, the international board game entertainment company, is claiming online sellers have infringed on their trademarks. Are you one of the Defendants in the case? If you got notice that your business is being sued by Wood Expressions for trademark infringement, you’ll need to act accordingly. Principally, you should respond to the lawsuit! The case is very real and not something you can ignore with the hope that it just vanishes. 

The allegations made by Wood Expressions amount to claims that a wide-ranging network of online sellers have engaged in counterfeiting. As such, all of the Defendants ought to take the matter extremely seriously. It’s going to impact your business, if it hasn’t already. Schedule A infringement cases like this one filed in Illinois develop based on a sort of playbook. Once the Plaintiff files the case, the attorney working on their behalf motions for a temporary restraining order (TRO). Once approved, the TRO takes effect and puts a freeze on the money in the Defendants’ online selling accounts. What does that mean for you? Your access to the money you’ve earned from selling Wood Expressions products is restricted. You can’t touch it. 

What follows this is that the Plaintiff will typically try and settle with the Defendants. Wood Expressions will likely contact each of the sellers named in the suit. If a settlement is reached, Wood Expressions drops the allegations and the seller can regain access to their money. What sellers need to know is that settlements often permit sellers to only keep about 60% of their money. Which is not the best outcome! Online sellers frequently struggle to stay afloat and every bit of cash flow can be the difference between success and going under. 

What Happens If You Ignore the Lawsuit?

Now, some sellers may consider that just leaving the case alone and not responding may be a good strategy. Walking away from the lawsuit will mean that any money frozen in your account will be awarded to Wood Expressions. A total loss, in other words. That move could also result in a Default Judgment, which will cost you even more money and damage to your business. 

What’s the most sensible way to approach handling this trademark infringement lawsuit? For most online sellers, retaining an intellectual property attorney gives them a great deal of power. An IP attorney can respond to the court for you, use the details of your business to counter argue against the allegations, and/or land on a settlement that provides you with a percentage of money that is more robust than you would get if dealing directly with the Plaintiff yourself. 

We have little doubt that you are interested in losing money. Why would anyone want that! Don’t unnecessarily inflict your business with any further damage. If you don’t know the United States legal system that well, that’s ok! Your attorney will and knows just how to navigate the process of resolution. Maybe you’re intimidated or confused by the notice that you’re being sued for something you don’t believe you did. Your attorney can fight against the Plaintiff’s claims, so you won’t have to. Most online sellers dealing with a trademark infringement case benefit from investing in an IP attorney to address the allegations made against their business. 

The Claims Made Against Sellers | Alleged Trademark Infringement

The legal complaint describes the “Unlawful Conduct” of the Defendants in the following ways (excerpted): 

Wood Expressions has identified many fully interactive, e-commerce stores offering Counterfeit Products on online marketplace platforms such as Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Alibaba, Walmart, Wish.com, Etsy, DHgate, and Temu including the e-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases. 

Many Defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using the WOOD EXPRESSIONS 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 Wood Expressions Products. Other e-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases omit using the WOOD EXPRESSIONS Trademarks in the item title to evade enforcement efforts while using strategic item titles and descriptions that will trigger their listings when consumers are searching for Wood Expressions Products.

E-commerce store operators like Defendants are in constant communication with each other and regularly participate in QQ.com chat rooms and through websites such as sellerdefense.cn and kuajingvs.com regarding tactics for operating multiple accounts, evading detection, pending litigation, and potential new lawsuits. 

Take Legal Action | Retain an Attorney | Contact Stockman & Poropat, PLLC

Wood Expressions is a major board game company. With any globally successful brand, counterfeiting will occur. However, just because someone infringed on the Plaintiff’s trademarks willingly, that doesn’t mean you did. In any event, if you’re one of the Defendants, you should strongly look into taking legal action. By retaining an attorney, you will greatly increase your chances at coming out the other end with enough resources to survive the blow and continue to thrive in the marketplace. 

Contact our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC today! We offer a free consultation. Once we understand the details of your business, we can get straight to work on determining an effective legal strategy that aims to resolve the issue with the least amount of frustration.

Download the legal complaint below:

Up next we will be discussing the Tory Burch Trademark Infringement Lawsuit.