Choose to respond, give up responding, or choose to settle.
? Several intellectual property law firms in the United States that specialize in anti-counterfeiting for big brands have represented companies that have been counterfeited brands in suing Chinese merchants in the United States for trademark infringement, and have applied to the local court to freeze the eBay listings of these merchants. account or PAYPAL account. What they usually do is: first collect information on product introductions and promotions of Chinese merchants online as evidence materials, then contact the Chinese merchants as buyers, express their intention to purchase, and ask the seller to provide their PAYPAL account number, and then file a lawsuit in a U.S. court. Apply for a temporary injunction to freeze the funds in the PAYPAL account. Subsequently, if the Chinese merchant does not go to the United States to respond to the lawsuit, after the default judgment takes effect, the frozen funds in the PAYPAL account will be transferred to the trademark owner as compensation for trademark infringement.
? 1. If you choose to go to the United States to respond to the lawsuit, if the act of counterfeiting other people’s trademarks is true, given that the laws of various states in the United States stipulate high fines for infringement of intellectual property rights, including trademark rights, Chinese merchants will The money in the PAYPAL account is not enough to pay the compensation, and there is almost no possibility of recovering part or all of the funds.
2. If they give up responding to the lawsuit, some sellers will give up the lawsuit because the amount deducted is not large, and they feel that even if they settle, the attorney fees will be very high. However, this not only means that the seller’s account will be deducted. If it is sealed and the money is transferred, it also means that the seller is likely to be continuously held accountable. In a previously decided case, the court not only required the defendant seller to pay a large amount of compensation for the infringement, but also authorized the GBC Law Firm to continue to deduct from every Paypal or other financial account later found to be related to the defendant seller. Until the compensation is paid, unless the seller changes to a new account, the funds in the seller's Paypal account will be deducted even if the counterfeit goods are not sold later.
3. Choose to reconcile with the plaintiff. However, the so-called settlement usually leaves only 10% to 50% to the seller in the end, which is very little compared with the funds in the previous account. At the same time, the so-called settlement often means that the seller admits that he has misappropriated the plaintiff's knowledge without authorization. Property rights, recognition of the other party's legitimacy, and complete confession and repentance. ?
4. Actively responding to the lawsuit has become the last choice for unwilling Chinese sellers
However, if the seller does the following two steps before actively responding to the lawsuit, it can even force the GBC to The law firm dropped the lawsuit.
(1) Contact the court receiving the case and the opposing law firm. The seller should first actively send a formal letter through the lawyer to the court receiving the case and the opposing law firm in the United States to clarify two pieces of information: ① Inform the other party of its company name (Which company is on the indictment) and accurate address, requiring the other party to serve judicial documents to the seller through formal channels and not in the form of an announcement; ② Refuse to admit any illegal behavior in the indictment before the final trial. These measures will give Chinese sellers time to respond, which may take more than a year, and can increase the plaintiff's litigation costs and gain initiative.
Note: Law firms like GBC do not submit documents to sellers through formal channels. If you do not follow the rules and send a subpoena, you can actually apply to withdraw the lawsuit immediately, which actually leaves you with a way out. At the same time, China and the United States are both signatories to the Hague Service Convention. The U.S. Federal Procedure Law stipulates that when transmitting judicial documents to foreigners, the Hague Service Convention must be followed. The Hague Service Convention stipulates that judicial documents from the United States to China must be forwarded through the Ministry of Justice of China, and the service documents must also be converted into the native language (i.e. Chinese), and the seller must prove that it still has 90 days to respond after receipt. If If service regulations are not complied with, the defendant seller may also request to withdraw the lawsuit.
? (2) After contacting PayPal, the seller must send a lawyer's letter to Paypal as soon as possible, requiring the other party to comply with the laws of Singapore (Paypal that signed the user agreement with the seller is a Singaporean company) and the contract signed by the Chinese seller The clause protects the security of Paypal accounts and states that if losses occur due to arbitrary freezing or transfer of account funds, sellers will file a lawsuit against Paypal to put pressure on it.
Since GBC law firms generally file lawsuits against Chinese sellers by casting a wide net, the above two steps can greatly relieve the seller's pressure and increase the other party's litigation costs. It even forced GBC Law Firm to drop the lawsuit.
(3) Formal response to the lawsuit If the judicial document is successfully received, the account funds are relatively large, and the seller believes that there is no infringement, the seller can formally respond to the lawsuit through a U.S. lawyer. Since U.S. attorney fees are based on time and are usually relatively high, sellers should be mentally prepared. At the same time, higher fees are also an important reason why law firms such as GBC dare to initiate a large number of such lawsuits.