The seller sued! 100,000 listings may be at risk

"——Payed another $8,000 to settle the 'infringement war'...

——I thought I was quite careful, why do I have to pay again?

——I will apply for patents for all products in the world!

..."

The infringement pitfalls are always new.

100,000 listings on sale, common color words sued for infringement again

Not long ago, Purple Innovation, LLC, a US DTC home furnishing company , commissioned the law firm BOIES SCHILLER FLEXNER LLP to file an intellectual property protection lawsuit regarding its patents and trademarks in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The case was officially filed with the case number 24-cv-61536 .

It is reported that the defendants in this case include several Amazon China sellers, and the court has now issued a TRO ban.

According to specific case information, Purple believes that the defendant has infringed on 11 trademarks and 7 appearance patents under its name , and one of the trademarks is the commonly used color word Purple . If other sellers use this word in the category to which the trademark belongs, it will be regarded as an infringement.

Purple Innovation, LLC, founded in 2015 , focuses on the Purple series of home furnishings , including ergonomically designed pillows and mattresses.

With its innovative product technology and unique color design , Purple raised $25,000 on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter in just five days , and reached a crowdfunding amount of $ 125,000 in one month .

With good softness, support, heat dissipation and breathability, Purple mattress provides consumers with an extremely comfortable sleeping experience. In its first year, the brand achieved sales of 75 million US dollars.

In the first quarter of this year , Purple 's revenue reached $120 million, a year-on-year increase of 12.5% . Some data predict that its total revenue for the whole year will reach $540 million to $560 million.

As a technology-based home furnishing company, Purple has quite a few technical patents, but this time it is mainly copyright issues in appearance and trademarks. The specific appearance patents involved are USD991706S, USD990930S, USD959176S, USD951670S, USD917926S, USD909790S, and USD909092S; the trademark registration numbers involved are 5416146, 5224883, 5224901, 5659866, 5661556, 6546748, 6816315, 6971732, 6971733, 6971734, and 6975208 .

This is not the first time that Purple has taken legal action. This is the fourth case this year alone. The previous three cases were 24-cv-21362 and 24-cv-21626 in April and 24-cv-60734 in May . Purple's trademark infringement is frequent.

The trademark registration number of the color word PURPLE is 5661556, the application date is July 2018, the effective date is January 2019, and it is still within the effective period.

If you search for "purple" on Amazon , you will find more than 100,000 related listings for sale , which shows how widely this color word is used.

In fact, in recent years, there have been more and more cases of common words being registered as trademarks. A seller who was previously affected once joked with a wry smile: " If you apply for trademarks for all Oxford dictionaries, you don't have to sell any goods. You can make a fortune by suing for infringement every day . "

For example, earlier on, a 3C seller used the common word "USB" in his listing, but was found guilty of infringement and ended up paying a lot of money.

According to information from the USPTO, there are currently 14,696 copyright information related to "USB" in the US market, of which 331 involve trademark registrations, including Class 1 chemical pigments, Class 5 medicines, Class 9 electronic products, Class 10 medical devices, Class 38 communication services, Class 41 education and entertainment categories, etc., and many of them are in the effective protection period.

The color word "pink" has also encountered infringement issues. Last year, the Barbie movie brought a pink trend. A group of sellers followed the trend and listed related color products and used this word in their listings. In the end, they did not make any money from using this word. Instead, their products were removed from the shelves and their stores were even closed.

USPTO information indicates that PINK was registered as a word trademark as early as 2001 and is still valid.

Searching on Amazon with the keyword " pink " still shows more than 100,000 listings on the platform , but there is no risk of infringement as long as they are not within the scope of the trademark.

Since the beginning of this year, sellers of common words such as Morandi, EYELINER , SUMMER , and DURABLE have all run into trouble over trademark issues.

A group of Chinese sellers of common products were also sued

It is not uncommon for common words to be registered as trademarks, leading to infringements.

Such as 100%, one, Tetris, yoyo, Organic, Frisbee, airbag, Generic, Brandless, Nologo, N/A, N/B, nobrand, Apple, Chapstick, Band-Aid, polo, Hula Hoop, VELCRO, happy birthday, Father's Day, collapsible, describe/description, ideal, perfect, chew, Pcs, inches, ounce, XM-L...

Whether it is proper nouns, degree words, quantifiers, adjectives, or color words, they can all be seen as registered trademarks. If you search on Amazon, you will find that many listings use these words as keywords, and many sellers have paid a lot of tuition in this regard.

Compared with trademarks, infringements on product appearance patents are also frequent, especially for products that are so common that one can easily fall into the infringement trap if one is not careful.

1. brush for animals

On October 4 , Chinese seller Heng Zhu commissioned the law firm Dewittyip to protect the appearance patent of his product, and the case was officially filed by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, with the case number 24-cv-01809 .

There are “only” 1,000 listings for “ brush for animals ” on Amazon , but it can be seen that the market demand for this product is very high, with many listings selling thousands or even 20,000 units in September .

The pet brush involved in the case is different from ordinary brushes. It has a spray design that can spray water mist while effectively removing pet hair, replenishing moisture for pet hair , reducing static electricity , and preventing hair from falling off . The product also has a massage function. According to relevant information, the patent number involved in the case is USD1020133S, and the patent was only issued on March 26 this year .

2. retractable water bottle pet portable water bottle

This is also a pet product case.

On October 2, Dewittyip, the law firm representing Chinese seller Weiming Sun, filed an infringement lawsuit in the Illinois State Court of the United States and was officially accepted with the case number 24-cv-09356 .

The extremely wide bottle mouth and retractable water trough provide greater convenience for pets to drink water, while the sealed silicone gasket designed on the bottle cap and the sophisticated lock control can effectively prevent water from flowing out. This pet water bottle sold by a Chinese seller is well recognized by consumers, but it cannot withstand plagiarism on the market. The seller is currently protecting the patent USD871839S .

3. Puzzle board

On October 1 and October 4, Chinese seller Xiaoling Che commissioned law firms DL and Avek to file two intellectual property lawsuits regarding the appearance of his products, and the cases were filed in U.S. state courts with case numbers 24-cv-09239 and 24-cv-09573 .

It is reported that the plaintiff owns multiple puzzle patents, and puzzle table products have performed well on platforms such as Amazon. On Amazon, there are 468 listings for " puzzle board " on sale . Looking at the products on the BS list, the sales volume in September exceeded 2,000 pieces, and some listings can achieve monthly sales of 4,000 pieces.

The patent number for this protection is USD1040241S , which only came into effect in August this year .

Recently, there are also patent cases of Chinese sellers such as shoe washing bags ( 24-cv-08946 ) and outdoor rattan lamps ( 24-cv-08816 ) underway. Sellers should note that with the coming of the new patents, a batch of new patents are taking effect one after another. Check them in time and avoid pitfalls.

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