Locked
Discussion interactions are currently paused.
Received Lawsuit M999 Warning for trademark infringement. Please help!
Hello,
Im a long time ebay seller based in Europe.
I have received this message from ebay:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
MC999 rc-parts: Urgent information about your eBay account
Hello ,
BIGFOOT 4X4, INC. has filed a lawsuit in the United States claiming that your account was used to sell inauthentic BIGFOOT products. Please take this notice seriously. If you ignore this matter, the court may rule that you have forfeited your legal defense and the court may force eBay to permanently disable your account. BIGFOOT 4X4, INC. can be contacted through their attorneys at the following email address:
Court Order Details
Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Plaintiff: BIGFOOT 4X4, INC.
If you had any remaining Toy Truck listings, eBay has ended them. Do not attempt to relist these products or use BIGFOOT in any other listing titles or descriptions. Doing so may result in your account being permanently disabled.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Those are my actions so far:
1) I made contact with “Bigfoot Inc†attorney, I have received copy of the complaint and screenshot of my listing
2) “Bigfoot Inc†attorney offered the sum of $3,000 to end their claim and release my store
3) I have carefully reviewed the listing. No violation was made and im pretty sure i can prove it in court.
4) My ebay store, bank account and paypal is NOT blocked untill not.
I have made contact with multiple layers with expertise in trademark violations in United States, all ask me crazy amounts of money just to hear my case and give advice.
My thoughts so far:
• Not sure i should even consider going to court proving inocent, probably far more expensive than making a deal
• If i accept a payment settlement i would still need a layer to make sure that im covered.
Did anyone else have similar problem?
Can you please give me advice? Im extremely stressed out with this situation.
kh-gary
·2 years agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
trevofaus-0
·2 years agoThis is happening to me as well. Do you have any updates on your case?
gemarakop_trading
·3 years agoSounds like a scam I never heard of a lawsuit being filed through ebay.
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoThere have been several postings like this on the forum for different items/trademarks. Starting to look like a bunch of ambulance chasers, lawyers must be hard pressed for work. Your in Greece so I would pretty much ignore the attempted blackmail scheme and certainly would not pay the 3K. I doubt eBay will terminate your account over this but that is a risk but there are other options out there.
If eBay terminated every seller that was infringing on trademark or patent violations the amount of merchandise coming out of China and several other countries would be reduced by 80%.
I would however cleanup your listings and get rid of the Bigfoot reference and break off contact with the black mailers.
rc-parts
OP3 years agoI believe that if i do nothing the court will order ebay to shut down my acount and ban me forever. I do not want to take that risk.
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoI believe that if i do nothing the court will order ebay to shut down my acount and ban me forever. I do not want to take that risk.
If that is what you believe then you have to decide how you want to proceed. I would think your account is at a greater risk of being restricted due to your performance metrics than it is from the lawsuit. The irony is that as the drop shipper you are the one targeted by the law suit and not the source(s) most of which are out of China. Do you think any of those Chinese companies are worried about a law suit or that they are going to pay any company or law firm one single dime? I also doubt that any court ruling is going to shutdown any factory in China.
allthingssurplus
·3 years agoI had 20 convenience stores in southern California. I purchased, back in the eighties, bobble head dolls of the California Raisin which at the time was a novel item. Bought them from a valid vendor. Received lawsuit papers as you did. Called my vendor and they had proof of their purchase of the product from the California Raisin people. Like you went to the Raisin attorney and asked that the suit be dropped. Their response was see you in court. Raisin was suing for $10k. Like you, went to trademark attorneys and all said we could win the case. Estimated cost to do so was north of $50k and 3-5 years. So here is my advise and I am a fighter when wrongly attacked, pay the $3k and do it using your own attorney. Make sure your attorney has their attorney contact eBay informing them that they will drop the case against you. Also, get something from eBay in writing stating if the suit is dropped your eBay account will be reinstated and no negative action will be applied to your account.
Now is this the answer your were looking for, probably not nor was it the answer I was looking for as well. However this is a business decision. You will not win this case without spending a great deal on money and have a damaged eBay account. You will feel like you have been stolen from. You will feel like eBay has given you no support and they won't. This is the answer if you want to stay in business and free yourself of the stress of going through this process. Sorry it happened to you. There are attorneys out there that do this for a living same guys that hang out the hospital ER to find work. Sad and is the world we life in. Get your life back, pay and move on.
rc-parts
OP3 years agoThank you very much for your reply!
This will probably be the way to go in order to protect my ebay account.
deltilogical
·3 years agoThey can copyright our individual genetic code so why not a word (besides that it is a level of tyranny beyond words)? The techoverloads get together in davos and probably envision a future where you have to pay royalties for using 'their' words when speaking, charged and administered through the never-off microphones and cameras in America's cell phones and devices.
albertabrightalberta
·3 years agoThey are accusing you of selling fakes and the fact that items are coming from China seems to confirm this. So in this case, you seem to be in the wrong and if a $3K fine will make the lawsuit go away, it's a relatively small amount to pay for the education you've received!
(This particular lawsuit isn't one that violates First Sale Doctrine. First Sale Doctrine allows the resale of items that are legally obtained, thus are authentic. Your items don't apply.)
theteamsetguy
·3 years ago@albertabrightalberta ,
Just because something is made in China doesn’t make it counterfeit. Many companies manufacture their products in China. The Apple IPad I’m currently using is made in China for example.
albertabrightalberta
·3 years agoI didn't refer to the item being made in China. What I was referring to was that items were being dropshipped from China.
redmodelt
·3 years agoLocated in Greece but drop shipping from China. With all the knockoffs coming out of China, could that have something to do with this?
caldreamer
·3 years agoDo NOT relist these items or your EBAY account will be terminated. Seems like their complaint is you cannot use the word "bigfoot" (I should remove that from your title, item specifics and description for all your items).
I did a search of your items using word "bigfoot" and 199 of your items still show word "bigfoot" somewhere in your listing. You should delete that immediately before they have your listing removed.
Government website https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/ should help you research what is copyrighted. Monster Truck is also copyrighted.
maxine*j
·3 years agoAs an aside, that is really a shame if someone has been granted copyright or trademark to "Bigfoot" or "Monster Truck," since both are generic terms in use for a long, long time. It is a really disturbing trend, with such generic and previously widely-used terms being granted copyright as Shabby Chic, Has[[y Valley, and a long list of similar.
-
retro_entertainment_collectibles
·3 years agoNothing new, been happening for ages and its Trademark no less. I was reading a legal beagle site about The Shop Safe Act which at least in it's initial phase included points of sale being able be fined for usage of Trademark Terms. The article cited, "Onesie" and "Onesies" as trademark by I believe Proctor and Gamble going back way way back. 145,000+ listings here have the term and the legal site said if The Shop Safe Act were to become law in that then state it'd be the end of third party online commerce in America citing eBay, Amazon, Etsy etc. The sites could not afford the fines basically.
postcardcountry
·3 years agoMaxine,
Bigfoot is the creation of Bob Chandler back in 1975. He was among the first to create a monster truck. The trademark is his and covers the paint scheme and name Bigfoot. It's not something recent. It's not new in the sports industry.
Back in the 1990s I went to an autograph signing by Dale Earnhardt Sr. There were signs up all over the place - any item being autographed had to be licensed by Nascar or he would not sign it. Exception was a photograph of yourself and Dale taken at a previous event.
kensgiftshop
·3 years agoI knew a retired football player and a friend of mine ask him if he would sign a football he had and he couldn't do it because it wasn't a licensed NFL football.
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoBigfoot is the creation of Bob Chandler back in 1975. He was among the first to create a monster truck. The trademark is his and covers the paint scheme and name Bigfoot. It's not something recent. It's not new in the sports industry.
Who's gonna tell this guy??
kensgiftshop
·3 years agoA few years ago, I received a packet from the Unilever legal department saying they were going to sue me if I didn't remove the word Popsicle (one of their trademarks) from one of my web sites.
I guess you can have almost any word trademarked now.
maxine*j
·3 years agoIs this the case linked to below? If so, it was terminated on March 2, 2023.
Bigfoot Inc. vs. The Individuals, Corporations, Limited Liability Companies, Partnerships, and Unincorporated Associations Identified on Schedule A Hereto:
https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/46096301/Bigfoot_4x4,_Inc_v_The_Individuals,_Corporations,_Limited_Liability_Companies,_Partnerships,_and_Unincorporated_Associations_Identified_on_Schedule_A_Hereto
You can also see if you were actually named on Schedule A -- which I seriously doubt, since you are in Greece.
Unless a COURT orders you to do so, do not send anyone any money.
-
rc-parts
OP3 years agoYes, im named in Schedule A.
What this means?
stainlessenginecovers
·3 years agoIt means
Quit buying/selling anything from China
End any and all listings that you are getting any 'name brand' stuff from China
Pay the $3000
fab_finds4u
·3 years agoTo message 7- kudos to Maxine.
It means if you're on the list the court case against you was terminated.
rc-parts
OP3 years agoJust checked. This was another case. My case is not terminated.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 years agoI've never been an advocate for even more govt interference in our daily affairs, but this is one case where I think the govt SHOULD step in and shut down these types of SAD lawsuits where the defendant is basically tried & judged before they even are aware of said suit.
Then again I think they should also revisit the DMCA and companies using the same wrongfully to infringe on First Sale Doctrine rights, using cries of counterfeit etc then refusing to engage with the seller, so the seller has no recourse with the marketplace.
Way too much of this going on trying to shut down small legitimate sellers.
fab_finds4u
·3 years agoPay the $3,000 and then you'll be cleared. Fighting will cost far more that that. I'm no lawyer but I think you can't prove innocent unless you have a written licensing agreement with Big Foot.