Amazon joins hands with manufacturers to fight counterfeiting, and many Chinese sellers are sued!

Recently, Amazon and WEBER filed a lawsuit against 12 sellers (mostly from China), accusing them of illegally selling oven guards with the "WEBER" registered trademark on the Amazon platform and publishing false advertisements to induce consumers to buy.

At present, Amazon has closed the defendant's sales account and proactively refunded affected customers.

Weber is a global grill manufacturer that produces a variety of grills, cooking accessories, etc. Currently, Weber owns a number of intellectual property rights, including various trademarks. The trademark "WEBER" is relevant to this case.

The complaint said Weber purchased oven guards from these sellers and tested them to determine they were counterfeit. Although the products looked similar to Weber's and had the "WEBER" logo, they differed in details, such as the product labels, and the materials used to make the guards were different.

The following is a comparison chart of one of the products:

It is understood that Americans love outdoor barbecues, especially during the epidemic. According to a survey report by NPD, consumers spent more than $4.9 billion on outdoor accessories such as grills, camping stoves, and fuel in 2020.

NPD also noted that more than 14 million grills were sold between April 2020 and February 2021, a 39% increase in sales compared to the same period last year. In addition to the peak sales period in April and June, the second half of 2020 continued to be strong. Among them, gas grills led the way, accounting for 54% of sales in the second half of 2020, an increase of 37% compared to the same period in 2019.

As a protective cover used with ovens, it naturally has a certain market. But this incident also sounded the alarm for sellers. Amazon's tolerance for counterfeiting is not the lowest, but only lower.

In June last year, Amazon set up a global anti-counterfeiting team (CCU). In April this year, Amazon and the American sports camera manufacturer GoPro sued seven Chinese sellers and two companies, accusing them of openly using GoPro's trademarks and selling counterfeit "Handler" floating handles and "3-Way" (tripod/handle/arm) three-in-one camera mounts. After the incident was reported by the media in August, it also attracted the attention of many sellers.

However, not long after, another case like this occurred, which is worthy of sellers' deep thought. It is hoped that sellers can enhance their awareness of intellectual property rights, focus on research and development, and move towards "Made in China".

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Selling fakes