What is GBC Fishing? GBC Fishing Review, Features

The US GBC Law Firm , whose full English name is Greer, Burns & Crain, Ltd. One of the businesses of the law firm is about international intellectual property and anti-counterfeiting. They will directly purchase from the seller's store or ask the seller some questions about brand infringement products, and leave evidence to initiate litigation. PayPal will freeze the seller's funds in PayPal as soon as it receives such a lawsuit.

About GBC Law Firm

GBC Law Firm is described by cross-border e-commerce companies as a "fishing law firm that sellers are terrified of." Since Chinese cross-border e-commerce sellers lack awareness of independent intellectual property rights and self-legal protection, GBC Law Firm will collect relevant evidence and file large-scale lawsuits against sellers suspected of infringing on foreign e-commerce platforms in local courts in the United States, requiring the platforms to freeze the funds in the sellers' accounts, including on mainstream platforms such as Amazon, eBay, and Wish. The law firm will pretend to be a buyer to induce sellers to sell counterfeit products and sue them for infringement, saying that there are no counterfeit products.

GBC Law Firm mainly collects relevant evidence and files large-scale lawsuits against suspected infringing sellers on major cross-border e-commerce platforms through local U.S. courts, requiring the platforms to freeze the sellers' funds in their PayPal accounts. Due to limited time (only 21 days), most Chinese sellers eventually had to reach a settlement or give up the lawsuit, thus giving up a large amount of funds in their accounts in the form of compensation.

GBC fishing success reasons

1. First, take advantage of the sellers’ eagerness to make money and send suspected counterfeit products to them, asking them if they have the products. They also say that they need a large quantity and the price is negotiable, and that they only accept payments via PayPal.

2. Taking advantage of the user-first mentality, they repeatedly told the seller that the operation was unsuccessful and that other PayPal accounts were needed so that they could subsequently withdraw more funds from the PayPal accounts.

3. The fees of American lawyers are paid by the hour, ranging from 300 to 400 US dollars per hour. Many small and medium-sized sellers in my country cannot afford the high fees of American lawyers, so many people will choose to give up, and the frozen funds in the PayPal account will be cleared after a while.

4. The last point I have to mention is that a small number of Chinese sellers, who are lucky enough to sell fakes and infringe copyright, often leave a bad impression on overseas buyers. This seems to have become a "crime" that many sellers cannot wash away. It is precisely because of the connection with "fakes" that "buyers" with ulterior motives have seized on them and taken advantage of them.

5. Since information collection is not difficult and the process is relatively simple, and Chinese sellers do not have a strong brand awareness, law firms like GBC can earn a lot of income from Chinese sellers through streamlined and batch methods.

Common methods

If a seller knowingly sells infringing products, it is understandable that the court orders him to pay compensation. However, many sellers are sued by GBC in the following three ways:

1. The seller was sued simply because a word in the product was suspected of infringement.

2. Because the U.S. law firm used the sting enforcement method to ask the seller whether he could provide the corresponding product (similar to the design of a big brand). Once the seller promised to do so and provided the corresponding deposit payment account, the seller was suspected of infringement.

3. The seller did not sell anything, but just lent his account to others to collect payment. In addition, GBC Law Firm often sued Chinese sellers without even having the key evidence.

The process of freezing a PayPal account

1. GBC collects evidence: GBC will purchase infringing products and send them to Illinois to collect original evidence. Some even go so far as to obtain evidence through phishing: contacting sellers through Skype, email, etc., saying that they need to buy a certain brand name product in large quantities, and asking sellers to provide pictures and PayPal accounts. Even if there is no transaction, even if the seller does not currently have infringing products, these pictures can be used as evidence.

2. GBC files a lawsuit in a local court: usually a court in Illinois. In the early years, when brand owners saw infringement, they usually asked eBay/Paypal to handle it. Now brand owners entrust GBC, and GBC directly takes the original evidence to the court to file a lawsuit.

3. The court ordered Paypal to freeze the account: Paypal is an American company. The terms between Paypal and Chinese sellers were signed in the name of Paypal Singapore. Even so, Paypal's parent company is in the United States and must abide by US laws.

4. Paypal freezes the account and notifies the seller: During this period, GBC will send an email to the seller, informing you that you have infringed the brand's intellectual property rights and that GBC has asked the court to order Paypal to freeze the account.

How to deal with a frozen account

1. Give up the lawsuit: Since the amount of money deducted is not large, and they feel that even if a settlement is reached, the attorney fees will be very high, some sellers give up the lawsuit. However, this not only means that the seller's account will be blocked and the money will be transferred away, but it is even possible that GBC will not let go of the seller, and the seller will continue to be held accountable and pay a large sum of compensation. GBC can continue to deduct money from the relevant PayPal account provided by the seller until the compensation is collected.

2. Reconciliation with the plaintiff: Many sellers will choose this approach, but the sellers still have to contact lawyers to communicate with them. The seller's lawyer will forward the seller's information (frozen PayPal account, amount, products sold, etc.) to GBC's lawyer, and then GBC will send an email to the seller to ask for additional information. The seller will reply to GBC through the seller's lawyer, and then the seller will be subject to the settlement conditions given by GBC. The so-called settlement usually leaves only 10% to 50% of the seller's account, which is almost nothing compared to the previous account funds. At the same time, it means that the seller admits that he has misappropriated the plaintiff's intellectual property rights without authorization and acknowledges the legitimacy of the other party, which is a confession of repentance.

3. Actively respond to the lawsuit: Many Chinese sellers choose to respond to the lawsuit because they are unwilling to give up their hard-earned money.

(1) Contact the court and the other party's law firm: The seller should first actively send a formal letter to the U.S. court and the other party's law firm through a lawyer, clarifying two pieces of information: informing the other party of the name and exact address of the company, and requiring the other party to deliver the legal documents to the seller through formal channels, and not in the form of an announcement; and refusing to admit any illegal acts in the indictment before the final trial.

(2) Contacting PayPal: The seller should then send a lawyer's letter to PayPal as soon as possible, requesting that the other party protect the security of the PayPal account in accordance with Singapore law (PayPal, which signs a user agreement with the seller, is a Singaporean company) and the terms of the contract signed by the Chinese seller, and stating that if losses are caused by arbitrary freezing or transfer of account funds, the seller will file a lawsuit against PayPal, thereby putting pressure on it.

(3) Formal response: If the seller successfully receives the judicial documents, has a relatively large amount of funds in the account, and believes that there is no infringement, the seller can formally file a response to the case with the court through a US lawyer. Since US lawyers charge by time and are usually quite expensive, sellers should be mentally prepared. At the same time, the high cost is also an important reason why law firms such as GBC dare to initiate such lawsuits in large numbers.

Lessons for sellers

1. Don’t panic: When sellers know that they are accused of infringement, their first reaction is what to do, will they be arrested, and will they have to pay a lot of money. Even if the sellers have not actually infringed, the psychological hint to themselves at this time is that they have infringed, what should they do? In the end, most sellers will choose to settle, but they don’t know that this is actually what they want, so they must handle it calmly and take a good look at the prosecution terms of the prosecution documents provided by GBC. GBC is sure that Chinese sellers are not familiar with the law and have poor English, so they let the sellers sign an unequal treaty and then "cede land and pay compensation."

2. Be familiar with the law: China and the United States have signed the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters. The U.S. Federal Procedure Law stipulates that the transmission of judicial documents to foreigners must comply with the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters. The Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters stipulates that judicial documents from the United States to China must be transferred through the Ministry of Justice of China. The service documents must also be converted into the native language (i.e. Chinese), and the seller must prove that he or she has 90 days to respond after receiving the documents. If the service regulations are not complied with, the defendant seller may also request to withdraw the lawsuit.

3. Strictly control products: The US intellectual property protection system is very complete. For every new product launched, Chinese sellers should hire an expert who is very familiar with brand knowledge to control it. If there is any possibility of brand infringement, it should not be sold.

4. Transfer funds regularly: Many Chinese sellers often find that they are being sued by American law firms only after their accounts are blocked and funds cannot be withdrawn. Therefore, sellers should transfer funds in their accounts regularly to avoid huge amounts of funds in their accounts. This way, even if any unexpected situation occurs, the losses can be minimized.

5. Plans in operation: No matter on which platform, you should raise your awareness of infringement during sales and not take any chances; no matter on which platform, do not accept anyone's proposal to save commissions through offline transactions, do not pay through PayPal at anyone's suggestion, and do not borrow a friend's PayPal account, nor lend your PayPal account to a friend for payment; if it is really necessary to conduct offline transactions, it is recommended to either wire transfer (T/T) or Western Union, because these payment methods are more secure for sellers.

6. Build your own brand: The best way to avoid infringement is to build your own brand and sell your own products, which can maximize your own interests. At the same time, with the increase of own brands, the popularity of Chinese cross-border e-commerce will also increase overseas, which is not a bad thing for Chinese sellers.

Seller Loss

In the past two years, the US law firm GBC has repeatedly filed lawsuits against Chinese sellers and carried out so-called "fishing enforcement". According to incomplete statistics, it is the US law firms represented by GBC that have caused Chinese sellers to lose nearly 1 billion US dollars in total through their "rogue" behavior.