It’s a sad year, a group of sellers have been TROed

Entering February 2024, another wave of infringement cases is coming. It is the Spring Festival, but the overseas intellectual property circle does not care whether it can have a good year. It will sue and freeze. At present, a group of sellers may be in a hurry to remove their products, and some sellers have already received TRO notices.

In addition, the U.S. Patent Office has been issuing a large number of patents recently. Data shows that in just one week in January, more than 800 patents officially came into effect.

Monthly sales exceed 6,000 orders, common products are suing for infringement

Last Friday ( February 2), the patent lawsuit filed by shoelace brands HIC IPCO LLC & HICKIES OPCO LLC & TCJ I, LLC was officially accepted by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois .

It is understood that the lawsuit not only involves trademark infringement, but also appearance patent infringement . The plaintiff brand has entrusted Boies Schiller Flexner LLP to represent the case, with the case number being 24-cv-00952 .

Using elastic instead of traditional laces, the shoelaces designed by HICKIES can be adjusted according to individual foot shape and preferences, and do not need to be tied or removed manually, making it more convenient and quick to put on and take off. Another difference from traditional shoelaces is that HICKIES' elastic shoelaces are shorter, and one section is only suitable for two shoe holes, not throughout the entire shoe, which also means that consumers can freely match colors and be more personalized.

On the HICKIES official website, you can see that the product is priced at US$17.99 per set. Each set contains 14 straps (the number of eyelets for a pair of shoes), and each strap is 116 mm long.

The slip-on laces work with any shoe with eyelets, are made from a durable thermoplastic elastomer and are adjustable.

Judging from the product reviews, consumers are very satisfied with it. Many parents buy the shoelaces for their children, and some have become loyal consumers of the brand.

On Amazon, searching for "lazy shoelaces" as the keyword shows that there are 185 listings for sale . Some of the products on the listings have a high number of reviews and are priced between US$6.99 and US$16.59. These products are very similar to HICKIES .

Although there are less than 200 listings for sale , it does not mean that there is no market for this product. Yien.com has noticed that many lazy shoelace products have accumulated more than 60,000 reviews on Amazon and monthly sales of more than 3,000 pieces .

Take one of the lazy shoelaces as an example. Its design is very different from that of HICKIES shoelaces. Since it was launched on Amazon, the product has received nearly 80,000 reviews, a rating of 4.6 stars, and sold more than 6,000 units last month. Another similar elastic shoelace has received nearly 30,000 reviews.

At present, the HICKIES brand has initiated an intellectual property protection lawsuit involving multiple US trademarks such as HICKIES and Replace the Lace under the brand , and the registered categories are the 26th and 23rd categories. It also involves 8 US design patents, the effective dates of which range from 2014 to 2017 and are still valid.

It is reported that the plaintiff has filed a TRO with the court. Although it has not been approved yet, it is expected to be frozen as early as next week. Sellers with similar products mentioned above should be checked as soon as possible to avoid TRO.

International brands have teamed up with Amazon to sue

Last month, GoPro, an internationally renowned sports camera brand, launched another intellectual property lawsuit, which was represented by Boies Schiller Flexner LLP . The lawsuit still involved trademark and copyright infringement. The case was officially accepted by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida on January 4 , with the case number 2024-cv-20037 .

GoPro was founded in the United States in 2002. At first, it was just an ordinary consumer electronics company specializing in the production of small sports cameras. But it developed rapidly and by 2013, GoPro 's camera market share in the United States had risen to 45%.

Not to mention that in recent years, self-media and outdoor sports have become increasingly popular, and the versatile GoPro sports cameras have been widely recognized by extreme sports groups such as surfing, skiing, extreme cycling and parachuting , becoming a popular consumer equipment . Today, GoPro has almost become synonymous with "extreme sports dedicated camera" , and is the king of sports cameras.

But the bigger the brand, the more common the infringement happens, and GoPro has repeatedly raised the banner of rights protection.

According to information from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, GoPro has registered a wide range of text and pattern trademarks, including scientific instruments, communication tools, fitness equipment, education and entertainment, etc. A trademark patent search using "GoPro" alone yielded 406 results .

This time, GoPro is protecting quite a few trademarks, including 3032989 , 008425 , 5187830, 5214644, 5307372, 5933092, 6252363, 6373283, 6720168, 5375510, 4993752, 3308141, and 5375974.

In addition, GoPro has more than 100 copyrighted contents that are within the scope of this protection.

GoPro has intellectual property protection cases almost every year, and even jointly sued multiple infringers with Amazon in 2021 .

It is reported that at that time , counterfeiters forged GoPro camera accessories, including floating handles, "The Handler" and "3-Way" handles, extension arms and tripod brackets , and tried to sell them on Amazon . Finally, Amazon and GoPro jointly filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington .

Amazon has always had a "zero tolerance" policy towards infringement, and last year it teamed up with Canon several times to crack down on infringements, deleting thousands of infringing listings on the platform.

A number of common products are being sued for the second time, and thousands of patents have come into effect

In addition to the two cases mentioned above, several common products have recently been caught up in infringement scandals.

1. Portable urinal

On January 31, the plaintiff OZ Urinal, LLC commissioned Keener & Associates, PC to file a lawsuit for infringement of appearance, which was officially accepted by the court with the case number 24-cv-00849 .

From the appearance of the product, we can see that it is designed to be retractable and the product is reusable, suitable for outdoor camping, long-distance travel, etc.

The appearance patent involved in this rights protection was issued on December 25, 2018 , and the patent protects the design of the retractable part. It is reported that the patent had a rights protection record as early as 2022 , when 668 stores were sued . In this case, 264 stores became defendants.

2. PopSockets Phone Holder

On January 26 , the trademark infringement case of the brand PopSockets LLC. was accepted by the United States District Court with the case number 24-cv-00693 , and the law firm represented by it was another old acquaintance - GBC .

It is reported that the trademark numbers involved in this protection include 4572125 , 5204637 , 5394408 , 5486563 , 5662835 , 6005169 , 6005170 , 5783395 , 5757735 , 5651330 , 5757738 , 6647556 , and 6656980 .

3. SWAG

On January 23 , the Rafael Marcio Melillo Bastos brand defended the copyright of the SWAG pose and was officially accepted. The case number is 24-cv-00609 . The law firm represented by it is another old cross-border acquaintance - Keith .

The SWAG posture is very common , but sellers must not be careless as it is copyrighted and this is the second time the brand has initiated rights protection .

There are also many new infringement cases such as lamps and pet products. At the same time, Yien.com has noticed that the US Patent Office has been intensively issuing patent validity certificates recently. Data shows that in January alone, thousands of patents have come into effect. Sellers must do a good job of avoidance and beware of TRO during the Spring Festival, which would be a bad year.

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