sued for patent infringement, need suggestions please

[aviator3141]

Hi all.  I recevied a lawsuit for patent infringement. It appears to be real and I have contacted the law office and explained that I am a small reseller. They are offering to settle for $1500.  I purchased this item at an amazon bin store, it is a small item worth $8.  I did not sell it.  All they have is a screen shot of the item for sale from ebay and have locked my paypal account. As stated this item was purchased at a bin store with amazon products, it has an amazon label and still scans from the amazon app. I know assuming it is legit from amazon is no excuse but I bought it at a store. Note that this item was never sold by my, I still have it, it was pulled by ebay under vero with a note that a lawsuit had been filed.  I only had one and explained this to the law firm. The item was also listed as unbranded and did not claim to be of any brand. Have seen a few cases like this where after explaining the law firm dropped the seller from the lawsuit.   At this point I feel like I am being scammed by the law firm for money.  Would appreciate any help I can get.  Thanks

[jonathan.s.tan]

There is status hearing on March 7th. My PayPal account is still limited. I have very little money in that account so it’s not a big inconvenience for me. I’ve tried contacting and emailing the law firm so many times they don’t respond. The only email I got from them was payment and I only had two days to do this. Since then I got no response back from them. Their law firm never answers the phone or email.

How did you get dismissed? To what I understand those that were dismissed had to pay. But that’s not good if you paid but your account is still limited. 

I’ve tried mentioning to them I don’t live or have a store in China I am an American citizen and I don’t live in Chicago. I also never sold any items in the lawsuit. I tried telling them a similar case that was dismissed on the premise of ‘ personal jurisdiction’. That mentions if I’ve never sold anything to or from Chicago I shouldn’t be a part of this lawsuit. 
That was the latest email I sent them. Still no response. 

[magicjohnsonsvariety]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

This sounds very suspect to me, but maybe I'm not understanding. You got this item from an Amazon bin store and had listed but not sold it due to a VERO take-down, and now this law firm says you're off the hook for $1500?  Yeah, no I would not give them a cent.

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Same, I would just ignore it and wait for them to come to me...

[ittybitnot]

Same, I would just ignore it and wait for them to come to me...

@magicjohnsonsvariety 

Actually, they already did "come to the OP".  Victims of this new "cottage industry" have their payment accounts frozen by eBay or PayPal as he case may be.  

[jonathan.s.tan]

If you do get a court order summons do answer it and do make your appearance and file with the court I would advise. What this firm could collect a default judgement against you which if you check pacer.gov they have collected almost $50k from people in other lawsuits.  Once you file and you can appear virtually or by phone to state the case the against you. 

[jonathan.s.tan]

If you are selling anything from another country do verify there is a patent, copyright or trademark of the product being sold 

[magicjohnsonsvariety]

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@jonathan.s.tan wrote:

If you do get a court order summons do answer it and do make your appearance and file with the court I would advise. What this firm could collect a default judgement against you which if you check pacer.gov they have collected almost $50k from people in other lawsuits.  Once you file and you can appear virtually or by phone to state the case the against you. 

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I didn't mean ignore a court ordered summons...what the OP received is not an order to appear in court.

[kh-taylarie]

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