Many listings have over 10,000 reviews, but some stores have been closed

The old topic of infringement has come up again . It seems that the incidence of infringement incidents increases as the peak season approaches each year.

"It is becoming increasingly difficult to develop new products, so some of our peers simply copy them. If they copy from other platforms, there will be an information gap, and patent issues may not erupt so quickly. If you are quick, you can still make some money," a seller told Ennet.

Needless to say, this way of making money can result in a loss of both money and goods if you are not careful. At this time, cross-border sellers are entering the peak sales season, and having their stores closed is not a small loss.

A number of sellers' products infringed upon the rights of others, and their listings have been removed from Amazon

Recently , some sellers said that a batch of hooks on Amazon were removed from the shelves, and the accounts of the sellers to whom the corresponding listings belonged also showed abnormalities.

Yien.com learned that this may be related to a new brand patent infringement lawsuit.

November 20, JACKI EASLICK,LLC,and   JE CORPORATE LLC, the company entrusted the law firm Ference Associates LLC to file a lawsuit in Pennsylvania, USA for infringement of product appearance and trademark. The court has now accepted the case with case number 23-cv-2000 .

The rights involved in this case are the appearance patent of Handbag Hanger Hook and the trademark of Tote Hanger .

Information on the product's official website shows that New York handbag designer Jacki Easlick designed a metal hook for hanging handbags. The product is made of nickel, measures 3-3/4 inches high and 2 inches wide, and is sold in sets of 6 hooks .

At the same time, the website also reminds consumers that the products are only available at The Container Stores, Lowes, ETSY and Wayfair , and not to buy them from Amazon because all similar products on Amazon are not authorized.

It is worth noting that the patent application for the product in question was not approved recently . The trademark Tote Hanger was patented as early as September 2013. In the hook category, Tote Hanger is a common word and many sellers use it, but they don’t know that this involves infringement.

The handbag hook was granted a U.S. design patent in December 2013 , with an effective date of December 2027. The patent number is USD695526S 1 .

In other words, whether in terms of trademark or appearance, this product is already an old patented product . Why are there still sellers who knowingly violate the rules?

A seller said, “Maybe they don’t care about old products anymore, or maybe they are not sold on Amazon and no one has noticed it.”

However, no matter what, you can’t take chances . Currently, the product has initiated a TRO , and sellers have had their listings removed by Amazon and have received freeze notification emails. According to the TRO list, a total of 67 stores were sued , and Ennet noticed that many of them were Chinese sellers.

As daily, small products, this type of hook has historically performed well in sales on Amazon.

The linked products are selling like hot cakes, with more than 10,000 reviews on multiple listings

On Amazon , searching with the keyword “ Tote Hanger ” shows 174 listings for sale . However, the words “Tote” and “ Hanger ” are described separately in the listings , otherwise it would involve the trademark infringement issue mentioned above.

If you search for " Handbag Hanger Hook " as the keyword, it shows that there are more than 2,000 listings for sale on Amazon .

Whether it is Tote Hanger or Handbag Hanger Hook , the sales performance of the searched listings is good. Some items even have monthly sales of 5,000 pieces and tens of thousands of reviews .

In addition, Ennet noticed that among these listings, there are also products that are similar in appearance to the above-mentioned brand Tote Hanger , but with different materials and colors.

There is a model that looks almost the same but is made of plastic. It should have been launched not long ago. It is currently ranked No. 1 on Amazon’s new product list in the sub-category and No. 35 on the BS list of the tie rack category.

Another model that looks similar but is black in color and made of alloy steel and rubber sold over 100 units last month, with only 38 reviews and a rating of 4.5 stars.

Several other listings that do not look similar to the brand’s Tote Hanger but can also be used as handbag hangers performed better.

For example , the brand Evob sells silver hooks on Amazon, which are not only suitable for wardrobes, but also for kitchens, bathrooms, gardens and other scenes. Since its launch, it has accumulated 18,468 reviews, a rating of 4.7 stars, and sales exceeded 3,000 units last month . However, despite this achievement, it only ranks 70th in the BS list of subcategories .

Another black hook product under the Evob brand is similar to the above product. It ranks 85th in the sub-category BS list and sells well. Since its launch, the listing has accumulated 11,907 reviews, a rating of 4.7 stars, and sales in October exceeded 2,000 units.

Another example is the silver hook product of the brand ESFUN , which has 13,594 reviews on Amazon and a rating of 4.7 stars. It also sold more than 3,000 pieces last month. The listing ranks 61st in the BS list of the subcategory.

On Amazon, hook products from brands such as Waitkey , Myfolrena , RELBRO , Rivexy , and YourGift are relatively popular. As for Waitkey , more than 4,000 of its hook products were sold on a single listing last month .

Hook products have various application scenarios, whether in home or office environments, and the market demand for this product is only increasing. Moreover, as a small and low-priced product, factors such as consumption downgrade have little impact on its sales. Overall, although the profit margin may not be large and the market competition is not small, it may be a product worth paying attention to in the long term.

However, no matter what the product is, sellers need to pay attention to copyright issues, and in the "hooking world", copyright patent applications are not uncommon.

There are many patents for popular products, and the risk of infringement is always there

At the beginning of this year, the patent application for adhesive hooks was approved, which caused an uproar in the cross-border selling circle .

A square adhesive board with rounded corners , a round fixing board in the middle, and a hook installed, and an adhesive hook is complete. Such a common product has been applied for appearance copyright. Whether the sellers sell this product directly or give it as a gift when selling related products, they are facing the risk of infringement.

Compared with adhesive hooks, non-adhesive hooks are also frequently patented. If sellers are not careful, they will find that their listings have been deleted by the platform, such as the above-mentioned product that infringes the Tote Hanger handbag hook.

In this regard, E-En.com has compiled some patents for non-stick hook products that have been issued in the past two years:

1. Magnetic hook , patent number: USD997702 S1, effective date: 2023-09-05 ;

2. Harness attachment hook , patent number: USD996955 S1 , effective date: 2023-08-29 ;

3. Double hook , patent number: US D994473 S1 , effective date: 2023-08-08 ;

4. Double-sided over door hook , patent number: USD990294 S1, effective date: 2023-06-27 ;

5. Hook and hanger in combination , patent number : USD988115S1 , effective date : 2023-06-06 ;

6. Hook , patent number: USD974884 S1 , effective date: 2023-01-10 ;

7. Hook , patent number: USD968202 S1 , effective date: 2022-11-01 ;

8. Car hook , patent number: USD965502 S1 , effective date: 2022-10-04 ;

9. Hook , patent number: USD955861 S1 , effective date: 2022-06-28 ;

10. Carabiner hook , patent number: USD953147 S1 , effective date: 2022-05-31 ;

…

The patent validity period of the above products is 15 years.

The products are very common, but the risk of infringement cannot be underestimated, and sellers must be cautious.

listing

Closure of shop