TRO as soon as next week! A group of sellers may be sued for infringement before PD

The cooling of the cross-border e-commerce market does not mean that you can "do whatever you want", and intellectual property protection should not relax due to market fluctuations. Recently, many products have been sued for infringement, such as multi-function keys and ear picks, and there may be a group of sellers who will "fail" before Amazon Prime Day.

The ear pick product of a Shenzhen seller was infringed and the seller has entrusted a law firm to sue.

Ear picks are very common in every household. Because of the wide market demand, many cross-border sellers have set their sights on this product.

In recent years, there are many styles of ear picks, and as personal protection equipment products, there are even intelligent upgrades.

For example, the visual ear pick, which has now entered the discussion stage of "Is it an IQ tax?" Earlier, when this product was first launched, it set off a wave of market enthusiasm and was praised by consumers as a "magic ear pick."

The product has been designed with camera technology , a high-definition imaging focal length , and LED lights to easily illuminate the ear canal. Consumers only need to connect their mobile phones to visualize the entire cleaning process and clean their ears safely and thoroughly.

On Amazon, the prices of such products range from tens of dollars to hundreds of dollars . For example, a visual ear pick priced at $19.99 has sold over 200 orders in the past month and has a rating of 4 stars. Other similar products priced at nearly $100 have a rating of 4.5 stars .

Through search results, Ennet found that there are not many listings of this product on Amazon. But this does not mean that sellers can just jump in and list similar products, because some sellers have filed patent infringement lawsuits.

On May 25, Shenzhen seller Shihong Wang commissioned Aronberg Goldgehn Davis & Garmisa to file a patent infringement lawsuit.

According to Google Patent Search, Shihong Wang has 19 patents registered for ear picks . As the case is still confidential, the content of the patents has not been made public.

However, according to relevant professionals, the two appearance patents USD 951448 S and USD952149S are most likely the patents involved in the case . Both patent applications were applied for on March 30, 2021, and were approved on May 10 and 17, 2022, respectively, and are both valid for the 15th anniversary.

Currently, the seller has filed a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) motion with the court. Although it has not yet been approved, it is expected to be frozen soon . To avoid risks, sellers selling related products should remove their listings as soon as possible .

Ear picks are often popular on Amazon, but many types of infringements occur frequently

" Cleaning your ears feels like looking in the mirror, and is as comfortable as grabbing your toes " - this is the slogan of a certain brand of visual ear pick.

Although consumers are still discussing whether this product is a "tax for IQ" and there are not many related listings on Amazon, consumers' curiosity has driven the product to continue to receive high attention.

On AliExpress, a seller put 1,000 visual ear picks on the shelves before the Spring Festival, but they were sold out in less than a week. After that, the seller put thousands of visual ear picks on the shelves, but they were sold out again in a few days.

The product was sold out instantly after two consecutive restockings , which shows the demand for this product in the market.

In addition to the visual ear pick, there are many other types of ear pick "artifacts" on the market, such as spring ear picks, spiral ear picks, magnifying glass light ear picks, earwax suction devices , electric ear cleaners , etc. One ear cleaner with a score of 4.6 has sold more than 2,000 units in the past month .

On Amazon's US site, the popularity of ear cleaning tools is rising, with the search ranking soaring from 117,177 last week to 10,079 this week, a jump of 107,098 places in one week . In the product selection recommendations of the "Amazon Global Store Official Account", ear picks have once again become one of the personal care products recommended by European and American sites.

Among ear cleaning products, there are those for adults, babies, and pets. In the adult field, there are also many different products based on their functionality, and the segmented track is very broad.

But sellers should be cautious because there are many patents for products in this category and infringement cases occur frequently. Only the most common, most popular and most basic ear pick has a US patent. Even cotton swabs that can be used to clean the ears have been applied for a US patent.

1: Patent for the appearance of the ear pick; 2: Patent for the appearance of the cotton swab

Previously, the Smart Swab spiral ear pick launched by ND Products has repeatedly been involved in infringement incidents. As an ear tool that can clean, protect and massage the ears without using cotton swabs or other tools, Smart Swab spiral ear pick has not only applied for a trademark patent, but also obtained intellectual property protection for its product appearance.

Smart Swab is a registered trademark and has been infringed many times before. In the past two years alone, it filed two lawsuits in January and July last year, involving more than a hundred stores. The appearance patent registered in 2019 also suffered losses for sellers.

Cross-border claims have become a highly profitable blood-sucking industry, and sellers have repeatedly paid to learn their lesson

A small ear pick has so many patents that it is staggering. Not only are non-public model products patented, but even the most common basic models and cotton swabs are "protected" by patents.

Previously, hair curlers, hooks, shower caps and other popular products have also repeatedly infringed on appearance patents. Therefore, sellers must not be careless, as small products contain many patents.

Of course, sometimes "good fortune comes easily, but disaster cannot be avoided."

Nowadays, a group of blood-sucking "cross-border claims hooligans" have emerged in the cross-border circle. As the "four-person team earns 25 million yuan a year by cross-border claims" reported by Yien.com, some people can earn a lot of money by buying several houses in first-tier cities without any conscience.

There are also "cross-border hooligans" who specialize in registering trademarks and appearance patents. They cast a wide net, searching for products on platforms such as Amazon for registration. If there is a product that has not been patented, they will go to the corresponding seller to claim compensation.

Many sellers have suffered such losses. On a social platform, a seller said that after listing a product on Amazon, the rogue company that registered the trademark demanded a trademark transfer fee of 150,000 yuan because the trademark was not properly registered . Due to the large inventory of products, the seller had no choice but to sign the trademark transfer contract.

Such incidents are not uncommon, otherwise why would "cross-border claims" become a highly profitable industry? Some people even start specialized training businesses to suck the blood of sellers to fatten themselves. If a seller is unfortunately caught in the trap, they can only blame themselves for their bad luck.

Therefore, before listing products, sellers must not only check whether the products have infringement risks, but also do brand registration and other work. On Amazon, the same trademark category and subcategory must be registered. After listing, you should always pay attention to whether your brand has been registered by others . The more popular and popular the product, the greater the risk .

Trademark application is not easy. It takes time, energy, and cost in the early stage, and the cycle is very long. For US trademarks alone , the time from application to registration can be up to 8 months . During the application period, the attorney may be blacklisted by the Patent and Trademark Office , resulting in the invalidation of the trademark application. However, the difficulty of preparation also means the necessity of this work, so sellers should not be careless, as luck often pays a greater price.

Infringement

Amazon

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