Temu resumes litigation and Shein fights again? Overseas intellectual property protection becomes the focus

On December 14, Temu sued Shein again in the United States , saying it had no choice and that Shein's anti-competitive behavior was becoming more and more serious.

In this regard, a person close to shein said that Temu has not only been plagiarizing shein's own-brand products on a large scale and continuing to engage in unfair competition, but also has been confusing right and wrong, crying "the thief" and attempting to retaliate and discredit with malicious lawsuits. Shein will never compromise with such despicable behavior and will actively respond to the lawsuit and resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights through legal means.

Temu resumes lawsuit against Shein in US

On Wednesday, local time in the United States, Temu filed another lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, accusing fast fashion platform Shein of increasingly anti-competitive behavior against Temu. This is the rekindling of the war after Shein and Temu "settled" in November this year . In November this year, both parties withdrew their lawsuits in the United States.

The dispute between the two parties dates back to September last year when Temu officially entered the US market. At that time , Temu put many of the same products as Shein on the shelves in advance and "lowered" the prices by more than 20%.

At the end of December last year , shein initiated a lawsuit against Temu , accusing her of deliberately slandering and defaming shein in social media and online promotions , and plagiarizing and infringing on shein's brand and products.

In July this year , Temu filed a new lawsuit against Shein in the U.S. Federal Court in Boston , accusing it of violating U.S. antitrust laws. In the indictment, Temu mainly mentioned that Shein used its market dominance to prevent manufacturers from cooperating with Temu . Shein said at the time that " Temu 's lawsuit has no legal basis . "

On August 1, the U.S. federal court issued an emergency temporary restraining order against Temu, forcing Temu to stop "continued infringement" of shein-related copyrights.

According to court documents, Temu's infringements over the past few months include: 1. Plagiarizing a large number of copyrighted clothing designs and patterns from the shein platform; 2. Repeatedly ignoring infringement notices (DMCA notices) issued by shein; 3. Delaying the removal of infringing products or relisting them after slightly modifying the product design to maximize illegal sales; 4. Misleadingly using counterfeit shein logos in Temu's web page titles, unfairly carrying shein's goodwill, etc.

In September, a British court also issued an emergency temporary restraining order against Temu, requiring it to stop infringing on shein.

Temu has been sued for copyright infringement many times

Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank , analyzed that it can be seen from the lawsuits of both parties that the clothing field is one of the focuses of competition between the two parties, but there are differences in the models between Temu and Shein . Temu is similar to the domestic Pinduoduo model, which is a full-category platform, and the relationship between merchants and Temu is supply and sales. Shein started with its own clothing brand, and its clothing brand Shein is currently one of the most popular fashion clothing brands among overseas users .

Different models determine the different cooperation between the two parties and the clothing factories. The shein brand cooperates with clothing factories mainly to produce its own brand products, similar to the relationship between Zara and suppliers. The factories supply goods according to the standards and requirements given by the shein brand . Without the consent and authorization of shein, suppliers cannot provide shein brand products and pictures to other third parties without authorization ; and the cooperation between clothing merchants and Temu is the relationship between merchants supplying goods to the platform.

According to Shein's lawsuit, Temu has systematically copied Shein's own-brand products and images since it went online last September, seriously infringing Shein 's own-brand trademark and copyright. Temu also engaged in unfair competition by registering fake Shein social media accounts, selling fake Shein brand products, and spreading false information that defamed Shein . After complaints and negotiations failed, Shein was forced to take legal action to protect its rights.

Coincidentally, more and more Amazon sellers are jointly suing Temu for infringement. For example, FitBeast, a Chinese brand that sells sports equipment products , priced a product on Amazon at $25.99, but they found that it was sold for less than $5 on Temu . Therefore, FitBeast filed a lawsuit in court, accusing Temu and its suppliers of infringing on brand copyrights and damaging its sales. It believes that Temu and its suppliers copied and sold these products, stealing the fruits of its labor.

In April this year , another Shenzhen Amazon seller Xiao Zhang (pseudonym) sued Temu , also believing that the platform was suspected of infringement. It is understood that Xiao Zhang did not sell products on the Temu platform, but found his company's pirated products on it. These products were originally sold for nearly US$30 on the Amazon platform, but now they are only sold for about US$5.

The U.S. lawsuits are among the first legal disputes between Amazon sellers and Temu , according to court documents .

According to Wired, an Amazon seller found that the monthly sales of his popular products dropped by more than 20%. He believed that it was probably related to Temu listing the same products at a lower price. Amazon strongly condemned this and encouraged sellers to contact the platform's legal department. According to Wandian.com , Amazon has publicly encouraged dozens of sellers to defend their rights. Dozens of Amazon sellers said they found the same pictures and descriptions of their products on Temu .

Intellectual property protection becomes the focus when going overseas

Ma Rui, a Sino-US technology analyst, said in an interview with the media: “I think that as Temu becomes more and more well-known, it will face more and more lawsuits, including intellectual property rights, but probably not just intellectual property rights .

Just a few days ago, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Several Measures on Accelerating the Integrated Development of Domestic and Foreign Trade". In order to optimize the development environment of domestic and foreign trade integration, it emphasized strengthening intellectual property protection, focusing on clothing, shoes and hats, launching special actions to combat infringement and counterfeiting, and promptly correcting and stopping online infringements; at the same time, accelerating the construction of domestic and foreign trade brands, supporting domestic and foreign trade enterprises to cultivate independent brands, cultivate intellectual property advantage demonstration enterprises, support enterprises to give play to the combination effects of various types of intellectual property rights such as patents and trademarks, and enhance the overall competitiveness of brands.

Jiang Han believes that it is normal to have competition in the overseas market, but it should be unhealthy competition. All companies must operate in accordance with the law . This is the bottom line that must be followed in the development of enterprises.

On the one hand, with increasingly stringent overseas regulatory trends, "compliant and legal operations" has become a prerequisite for Chinese companies to go overseas, among which the protection of brand intellectual property rights is of paramount importance. The international market pays particular attention to the protection of its own brands, and businesses must avoid violating regulations in order to take shortcuts .

On the other hand, with the end of the era of wild growth, in the increasingly fierce international market competition, Chinese companies must avoid cost-effective homogeneous internal circulation. All companies must continue to enhance their core and comprehensive competitiveness, jointly promote Chinese manufacturing, Chinese brands, and the brand image of Chinese companies going overseas , compete in an orderly manner, jointly build a healthy industry ecology, and promote the long-term development of cross-border e-commerce. They must not use the inertial thinking of vicious competition in the past to engage in close combat in the international market, thereby damaging the industry and the image of Chinese manufacturing.

Yesterday, Shu Jueting, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, said that my country's cross-border e-commerce has continued to maintain rapid growth this year. In the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will strengthen capacity building, give full play to the role of industry organizations, focus on platform compliance, intellectual property protection and other issues of concern to enterprises, and carry out training to help cross-border e-commerce companies expand overseas markets.

The overseas market is complex and intricate. While pursuing their own development, cross-border e-commerce companies must pay more attention to corporate compliance operations in order to achieve long-term success.

SHEIN

Temu

litigation