The seller panicked! He gave up his store and received a domestic court summons

Infringement cases occur frequently in the cross-border circle , and many sellers are worried that they will be sued and receive TRO bans if they are not careful .

The seller was sued for infringement and gave up the store. He received a summons from the Shenzhen court!

Recently, some sellers reported that after receiving a TRO ban for product infringement in the United States , they chose to be absent and gave up their stores, but received a subpoena from a domestic court.

The subpoena information shows that this court was entrusted by the XX District Court of the United States to serve the relevant legal documents of the case. Because the XX District Court of the United States could not get in touch with the seller, the relevant legal documents were served to the seller. The seller was required to go to the Shenzhen XX Court within half a month to collect the order, evidence, subpoena, complaint and translation and other legal documents.

This made the seller panic and he didn't know how to deal with it.

It should be noted that this is different from previous seller infringement cases. If the seller does not promptly collect relevant orders, subpoenas and other materials as required by the domestic court, the domestic assets may also be frozen.

Because different countries can provide judicial assistance, the plaintiff who owns the intellectual property rights can sue the defendant in the court of the seller's country . If the court ultimately finds that the defendant has infringed, the defendant's property in his own country can be directly frozen and seized.

From this we can see that even if the seller abandons the store after receiving the TRO ban, the plaintiff who owns the intellectual property rights can still continue to file a lawsuit in the court of the seller’s country to protect his or her legitimate rights and interests.

Therefore, if the seller receives a subpoena from the court of his own country, he must respond actively and entrust a professional lawyer in the United States to help handle the case, present reasonable defense and evidence to the court , and strive for his own rights and interests to the greatest extent possible.

What is TRO ? Some sellers may not be clear about it.

The full name of TRO is Temporary Restraing Order, which means a temporary injunction issued by the court at the request of the plaintiff during the litigation process to force the infringer to temporarily stop the infringing behavior .

The purpose of a TRO is to stop impending infringement and protect the rights of the plaintiff.

If a seller receives a TRO , the platform will also receive relevant documents at the same time, and the platform will restrict the permissions of the store suspected of infringement. The links of products suspected of infringement will be forcibly removed from the shelves , and the store’s withdrawal permissions will also be directly frozen.

Generally, sellers have four solutions after receiving TRO , which are:

① Request to withdraw the lawsuit (appeal)

② Response

③Reconciliation

④Absence - Abandon the store

The seller was tried in absentia and had to pay a high amount of compensation !

There is another situation where the seller chooses to be absent after receiving the TRO ban, and the store is judged in absentia and ordered to pay a high amount of compensation, and the balance in the store account is directly deducted.

This type of judgment occurs when the defendant seller fails to respond within the prescribed time when receiving a court summons or fails to appear at a court hearing, resulting in the court entering a default judgment in favor of the plaintiff.

After the verdict, the litigation process ends and the infringing seller’s frozen account funds are directly transferred as compensation. If the seller’s frozen account is not enough to pay the compensation, the frozen account will be permanently restricted.

At the same time, it should be noted that the plaintiff will continue to monitor the defendant seller’s online behavior. If it is found that the store involved in the lawsuit has other payment accounts, the plaintiff will choose to continue to apply for court enforcement, so sellers must be vigilant.

Judging from previous default judgments in infringement cases, the amount of compensation awarded by the court may reach US$150,000.

What should a seller do if he or she receives a default judgment?

First, the seller should try to negotiate with the plaintiff to see if the other party is willing to revoke the default judgment. Generally, the seller needs to pay a certain amount of settlement money. The specific settlement amount can be entrusted to a local American lawyer to understand the case and make an assessment .

Alternatively, if the plaintiff refuses to negotiate and does not want to revoke the default judgment, the seller can file a motion for revocation with the court and must provide legitimate reasons to explain the reason for the default lawsuit.

It is important to note that a motion to vacate a default judgment must state that the judgment should be overturned and the case should be heard again, and the motion must be served on the plaintiff.

If a default judgment is rescinded, the case will be retried, which may result in a different judgment than the previous one.

Malicious complaints against rogue law firms are emerging one after another, and some Chinese sellers have won the cases!

According to incomplete statistics, there were more than 3,000 infringement cases in 2022, and each case involved more than a hundred sellers. It can be said that most sellers have encountered infringement problems.

According to a survey conducted by Ennet, nearly 20% of cross-border sellers have encountered more than 5 infringement lawsuits since entering the industry, and nearly 70% of sellers have also encountered 1-5 infringement lawsuits.

In addition to routine infringement lawsuits, there are also numerous cases of malicious complaints from rogue law firms.

GBC, Keith, EPS, SMG, HSP, David... These are all "rogue law firms" that have long been criticized by sellers in the cross-border circle . Many sellers have had the painful experience of being "sucked blood" by rogue law firms .

A seller reported that one of his stores was complained by GBC for trademark infringement. During the negotiation stage, GBC demanded a settlement of US$40,000.

Another seller was sued by both GBC and Keith law firms within two months, and spent nearly $40,000 in total to reach a successful settlement.

Previously , Yien.com reported such an incident: a small domestic company of four people specializing in cross-border claims business applied for a patent in the United States and then sued Chinese cross-border sellers. In less than half a year, it has earned more than 7 million yuan, and its expected revenue this year is as high as 25 million yuan.

If they are maliciously sued, many sellers will choose to settle, pay money to keep the matter quiet , or even reluctantly give up their stores. However, in the long run, this will only encourage rogue law firms to act, and sellers will end up losing more than they gain.

Therefore, some sellers won the lawsuit through litigation + negotiation, and finally won with 0 settlement fee and unfrozen their accounts .

Faced with frequent malicious complaints from law firms such as GBC, many voices have appeared in cross-border e-commerce forums calling on victimized sellers to respond collectively: We can no longer remain silent, we can no longer allow these rogue law firms to continue to harm our compatriots, and we can no longer allow this kind of atmosphere to make Amazon sellers feel insecure.

If sellers encounter malicious prosecution by a wandering law firm, they should unite to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests!

In general, for cross-border sellers, if they want to gain a foothold and develop in the international market with strict intellectual property protection, they must ensure that their products do not have infringement risks.

The best way to avoid malicious prosecution is to sell your own brand and use original works . It is also best to register your trademark in advance and conduct regular product self-inspections to avoid all possibilities of malicious infringement complaints.

It should also be noted that sellers must keep their eyes open when applying for trademarks, choose compliant and formal agencies , and be careful at every step .

Infringement

Prosecution