The counterfeit lawsuits that scoop up hundreds of Chinese Amazon sellers at once

Sellers like Sun feel the lawsuits are designed to take advantage of people who lack experience with the American justice system and face a language barrier. In November 2020, PopSockets, a US company that designs phone cases and other accessories, applied to trademark the term “airbag” under the ca...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMIT Technology Review.com
Main Author Yang, Zeyi
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge Technology Review, Inc 20.06.2023
Subjects
Air bags
Attorneys
Counterfeit
Counterfeiting
Electronic commerce
Electronic equipment
Law firms
Legal fees
Litigation
Trademarks
United States > US
China
Chicago Illinois
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Summary:Sellers like Sun feel the lawsuits are designed to take advantage of people who lack experience with the American justice system and face a language barrier. In November 2020, PopSockets, a US company that designs phone cases and other accessories, applied to trademark the term “airbag” under the category of “hand grips, stands, mounts, and cases adapted for handheld electronic devices.” [...]the cases can involve hundreds of sellers at the same time, yet the sellers don’t know who else is being sued, and they usually don’t know they are being sued themselves until the court orders Amazon to freeze their accounts. Justin Gaudio, an attorney at the Chicago-based law firm Greer, Burns & Crain (GBC) and the lead counsel for the plaintiff in the airbag lawsuit, told MIT Technology Review in an email that the reason so many Chinese sellers are sued in such cases is that counterfeiting is largely a Chinese problem.
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