US court issues four TROs in a row to prohibit Temu and other sellers from infringing on Shein and dismisses sellers’ appeals

The latest temporary restraining order issued by the US court on March 5 shows that due to infringement of Shein, the Eastern Division of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued a TRO (temporary restraining order) to 31 merchants on the cross-border platform, requiring the above-mentioned merchants to stop infringing on Shein and freezing the funds in these merchants' accounts. Most of these merchants are located on the Temu platform.

         Latest TROs issued by U.S. courts

In his ruling, the judge severely rejected all the claims of these infringing sellers and clearly pointed out that there was a lot of evidence that these sellers were very likely to infringe Shein's copyright and might withdraw funds, so it was necessary to freeze the funds of these merchants. The judge also clearly stated that if these infringements were not stopped through the harsh means of TRO, Shein would likely suffer "irreparable" damage. The judge also rejected all other obviously unreasonable claims of the infringing sellers.

In addition, earlier, from December 2023 to January 2024, in response to Shein's own brand rights protection, the US court has issued three TRO temporary restraining orders in succession, requiring the infringing merchants to stop the relevant infringement of Shein. Most of the sellers are on the Temu platform, and the scope of the infringing products covers a wide range of women's clothing, children's clothing, etc. During this period, some Temu sellers filed complaints against the TRO, but the US court rejected all the complaints of these sellers and maintained the decision to freeze the funds, which fully shows that the court believes that these merchants have committed infringements.

( On March 6, the U.S. court document rejected the seller’s appeal)

TRO temporary restraining orders often appear in trademark, patent, and copyright infringement cases. In judicial practice, the plaintiff can request the court to prohibit or restrict the defendant from performing certain actions in order to stop and avoid irreparable damage. The conditions for the court to issue a TRO are relatively strict. The applicant needs to provide sufficient evidence, the most basic of which is to provide substantial evidence that the applicant believes the other party has infringed the rights and proof of the rights that have been infringed.

In addition, last month, Shein once again won a temporary injunction from the British court after the latest trial in response to the lawsuit filed by Shein for infringement of thousands of pictures. The latest injunction also clarified the scope of application of the injunction, that is, the pictures that Shein has the right to complain about include all Shein pictures, whether they are taken by Shein itself or by suppliers or photography agencies. Shein can file a complaint, and Temu must remove the infringing pictures within two days of receiving the complaint.

(The latest UK ban comes from the UK court file website: https://efile.cefile-app.com/)

So far, Shein has successfully obtained the support of British and American courts in all cases. "The issuance of multiple temporary injunctions or temporary restraining orders in the UK and the US has actually made it clear that there are infringements on the Temu platform at the factual level, but we can still see some misleading information that may have been intentionally released to mislead merchants. If the evidence in this regard is conclusive, the corresponding platform may have deliberately instigated and misled sellers. Once this level is confirmed, the platform needs to bear the responsibility of spreading rumors and abetting infringement." A legal expert pointed out.

Public information shows that Shein was founded in 2012 and started as a clothing fashion brand "SHEIN". It has gradually expanded its business scope to all fashion categories. Its "own brand + platform" dual model covers own brands and third-party merchant products. Under the own brand model, the Shein brand has established its own digital flexible supply chain, analyzed its own brand product sales and market feedback, extracted popular elements and design insights, and then worked closely with the back-end supply chain to launch Shein brand products that consumers need to the market in real time , and the price is cheaper, so it is very popular among overseas consumers. The clothing brand Shein has successfully become one of the world's four major fashion brands together with ZARA, H&M, and Uniqlo; under the platform model, Shein uses its huge global sales and marketing network to help more third-party merchants sell their products to the world. Recently, the overseas authoritative organization PYMNTS released the global shopping application list in February. Shein has topped the list for the seventh consecutive month. AliExpress and International Station under Alibaba ranked second and fourth respectively, and Amazon ranked third.

Owning its own brand can be said to be the biggest feature that distinguishes Shein from other e-commerce platforms, and Shein's rights protection also involves Shein's own brand products and pictures. As China's manufacturing is accelerating its transformation to high-quality development, insisting on brand innovation and brand going overseas is one of the development trends in the past ten years of cross-border going overseas. In January 2024, the General Office of the State Council issued a notice on "Several Measures to Accelerate the Integrated Development of Domestic and Foreign Trade", proposing to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, accelerate the construction of domestic and foreign trade brands, support enterprises to give full play to the combination effect of various types of intellectual property rights such as patents and trademarks, and enhance the overall competitiveness of brands.

With the boom in cross-border overseas development, the industry will also develop into a more standardized stage , and compliant operations will become the key to the sustainable development of cross-border e-commerce companies. For platforms and merchants who want to tap into the international blue ocean market, they should not only pay attention to market size and business opportunities, but also pay attention to compliant operations, respect local laws and regulations, and avoid legal risks and business losses caused by infringement.

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