A group of sellers were blocked before the peak season

Recently, the topic of "market performance during the peak season in Europe and the United States" has been hotly discussed, but "times are different now", and this year's peak season performance seems to have made many sellers dissatisfied:

"——The peak season is approaching, but traffic is still less than 50% of the same period last year.

——I felt the delivery fee during the peak season first.

——After working at Amazon for many years, this is the first time I have encountered an October that is even worse than September.

——The lower the price, the more popular it is.

..."

The peak season is "invisible", but sellers still have to sell goods as usual and do a good job of compliance management. However, recently, many sellers have stepped into the infringement pit.

100,000 related listings are on sale, and a group of sellers have been TROed

Last month ( September 12), an infringement lawsuit against the century-old brand KLAUBER BROTHERS, INC was officially filed in Illinois, USA , and 359 Amazon sellers received infringement warning emails in the Amazon backend .

It is understood that the copyrighted product involved in this lawsuit is lace, the plaintiff's law firm is Donigerlawfirm, and the case number is 23-cv-10407.

KLAUBER BROTHERS, INC was founded in Germany in 1859, mainly producing and selling textile products. Its first handmade products were shoelaces, and later it grew into a leader in the underwear and apparel industry . KLAUBER's core products and technological advances have always been developed in-house, so most patterns are protected by original copyright . KLAUBER has the most design copyrights for lace elements.

In daily life, products with lace elements are not uncommon. A search for "lace" on Amazon shows that there are at least 100,000 listings of products with lace elements; if you search for "Lace lingerie", there are more than 20,000 listings on sale .

As can be seen from the above figure, in the BS list of subcategories , a lingerie product with lace elements has over 40,000 reviews , which shows that this element is very popular in the market, especially in clothing categories such as skirts, stockings, pants, etc. It is very common to use lace in the design.

But it is not just the clothing category. On Amazon, products containing the keyword lace also include accessories, curling bands, sofa covers, curtains, fans, etc., covering a wide range of categories.

According to the meeting minutes of October 6 , the court has approved the TRO motion filed by KLAUBER , and the defendant Amazon sellers have had their accounts frozen one after another .

In this case, any product containing lace designed by KLAUBER will be deemed as infringing. Although some sellers did not receive infringement emails and were not sued, for safety reasons, E-EN.com still recommends that all sellers of lace products conduct continuous self-inspection, especially sellers in the clothing category, because the crackdown on infringement by such old brands is a long-term process.

In addition, although the defendants this time are all Amazon sellers, it does not rule out the possibility that other cross-border e-commerce platforms may be involved in the future.

With monthly sales of more than 20,000 orders, Chinese sellers have been infringed

The above-mentioned lace is the most common design element, and many sellers have fallen into trouble. However, recently, many sellers have been included in the defendant list because of common products.

1. Dancing cactus

During the National Day holiday ( October 2), the infringement case of Chinese seller Zhiguang Zhang was officially filed. The seller appointed Stratum Law LLC as the agent, and the case number is 23-cv-14383.

This case mainly involves the product's appearance design patent US D995660 S applied for in the United States . The patent report pointed out that it was first applied for on June 14, 2021, and the date of issuance was August 15, 2023. Therefore , related appearance products launched after that may be at risk of infringement.

Made of soft high-quality materials, with an electronic device at the bottom, the toy 's dancing movements can be controlled by switches, and it can also record sounds and imitate speech. This product is very popular on Amazon . A search on the front page shows that there are 133 listings on Amazon selling the same product, with the highest monthly sales of a single listing reaching 6,000 orders, and the others ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 orders .

2. Bottled water bottle cap

On September 29, the Chinese seller Huawen Chen's bottled water bottle cap appearance patent infringement case was officially filed. The seller appointed Law Office Of Carla E Buterman LLC as the agent, and the case number is 23-cv-14304.

By using a multi-opening design, opening the bottle is easier and the possibility of water spilling is reduced. The patent report shows that on March 7 this year, Huawen Chen's bottled water bottle cap obtained a US appearance patent certificate with the patent number USD980067S.

Searching by keywords on the Amazon front desk, there are more than 10,000 related listings for sale , some listings sell 300 pieces per month, and the number of product reviews is in the thousands.

3. Leatherman Multi-Tool

On September 29 , the lawsuit filed by the brand owner Leatherman Tool Group, Inc. on behalf of GBC Law Firm for trademark infringement was officially filed, with the case number 23-cv-14313 .

As a combination tool that combines the functions of a knife, screwdriver, awl, ruler and standard long-nose pliers , Leatherman pioneered the multi-purpose tool and is sold in more than 70 markets around the world.

It has many products and trademarks. This case mainly involves its multiple trademarks registered in the 8th category of hand tools , namely pliers, wire cutters, wire strippers, straight blade screwdrivers, files, can openers and bottle openers .

According to the meeting minutes of October 3 in this case, the plaintiff has filed a TRO motion with the court. Although it has not yet been approved , sellers of relevant categories should pay attention to the relevant text graphics , appearance, packaging, etc. not appearing in the product listing .

4. Handheld electric fan

In recent years, handheld electric fans have gradually become a necessity for consumers in the summer, but infringement cases involving this product have also increased year by year.

On Amazon, there are more than 1,000 listings for handheld electric fans, and most products have monthly sales of over 100 units. According to the search results, the Chinese seller SHENZHEN JISU TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD has the best sales, ranking first in the search results, with over 50,000 reviews and 20,000 orders sold in September .

But even such a hot-selling product was infringed upon.

On September 22, SHENZHEN JISU TECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD was formally accepted by the court for infringement of the appearance patent of its handheld fan. The case was represented by Getechlaw Law Firm, and the case number is 23-cv-14016.

According to the patent report, the U.S. appearance patent for the product in question was authorized in June 2020, with patent number USD886982S .

In conclusion:

As the peak sales season in Europe and the United States approaches, in order to ensure the smooth progress of the event, Amazon will rectify illegal activities in advance. Therefore, large-scale sweeps before the peak season have become the norm . Some sellers said that they expect at least one more wave of sweeps after November.

Among these, infringements will be closely watched by the platform. It can be noticed that before the peak season every year, the number of infringement cases almost reaches a peak. In order to avoid being robbed of orders and market share, sellers with copyrights are not soft-hearted in raising their rights protection weapons.

Some sellers also submit patent applications early, and their patents take effect before the peak season. Therefore, sellers must always pay attention to the originality of their products. Not infringing before does not mean there will be no infringement now or in the future. Some newly effective patents will have an impact on the products they sell.

Although the peak season is a little cold, you should not make trouble by stumbling over copyright.

Peak Season

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