Mai Jia supports the invitation to attend the 2nd North Cross-border Brand Summit to share some issues about TRO infringement of cross-border e-commerce.

Under the guidance of Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Tianjin Binhai New Area Business Promotion Bureau, Tianjin Binhai New Area Intellectual Property Protection Center (Tianjin Binhai New Area Branch of National Overseas Dispute Response Guidance Center), Sino-Singapore Eco-city Free Trade Linkage Innovation Bureau, Sino-Singapore Eco-city New Economic Bureau and other departments, in order to implement the requirements of the State Council General Office, The 2nd North Cross-border Brand Going to Sea Summit, co-sponsored by Tianjin Liming Cross-border Internet Development Co., Ltd. (National Overseas Intellectual Property Dispute Response Guidance Center Tianjin Binhai New Area Branch Cross-border E-commerce Overseas Rights Protection Studio) and other units, was successfully held in Block C of Sino-Singapore Eco-city Animation Building in Tianjin Binhai New Area on November 7th. This activity, together with many well-known cross-border e-commerce platforms and service organizations, small and medium-sized manufacturing factories and brand enterprises, builds a B2B export promotion platform for supply chains and cross-border e-commerce enterprises through experience exchange, brand display, product promotion and trade negotiation, helping more brands and enterprises to go online, promoting the transformation and upgrading of online trade at home and abroad, and making positive contributions to the double cycle of domestic and international economy. “Enterprises Go Global, Brands First” With the increasingly fierce competition in the global market, many enterprises have set their sights overseas. For enterprises going abroad, the primary problem is the overseas intellectual property protection of core technologies. The global layout of intellectual property rights is the key for cross-border e-commerce enterprises to go global. Maijia Support is very fortunate to be invited to attend and share with Ms. Qi Yingjie, senior solution consultant of Keruiweian, the typical cases of intellectual property rights layout and infringement, and how to deal with cross-border export enterprises when they encounter infringement. Let’s review the sharing content with Xiaobian! There must be an answer you want to know:

First of all, Mai Xiaotian, the founder of Maijia Support, as a special guest, introduced Maijia’s business on behalf of Maijia Support: We focus on helping cross-border e-commerce sellers solve: cross-border infringement and legal problems. Provide services such as infringement settlement, responding to lawsuits and brand rights protection.

Then, the cross-border infringement of TRO is systematically introduced, so that everyone can have a systematic understanding of TRO, mainly focusing on the following aspects:

What is TRO cross-border infringement TRO cross-border infringement? As a cross-border seller, it is no stranger, but full of mystery; Three or five years ago, few people knew what TRO was, but in recent years, the prosecution cases of plaintiff’s rights protection can be said to be overwhelming; Many sellers got to know this term by receiving the first TRO frozen email. TRO, the English full name of Temporary Restraining Order, is a temporary restraining order, which aims to make the plaintiff’s brand stop loss quickly. From prosecution-TRO motion-TRO sign and freeze, it can be completed within one week at the earliest. Here’s a question: Why do most people sue in Illinois? 1. There are 50 states in the United States, and the laws and regulations of each state are somewhat different. It happens that the laws of Illinois are more friendly to the plaintiff and the threshold for prosecution is lower, so most of them sue in this state. 2. Most of the target groups of this kind of TRO cases are sellers in China. This year, we also contacted sellers from Vietnam, Sri Lanka and other places. Next, I estimate that it may cover more countries. Because many sellers in China don’t have the habit of checking their emails, it is a pity that the shops have been frozen for a long time and even the funds have been deducted by the judgment. Mai Jia’s trick to share: whether it is infringement or not, try to withdraw cash every day! TRO cases introduced by representative infringing brands are usually: trademark, patent or copyright infringement, and various types of rights protection of individual brands integrating patents, trademarks and copyrights. Sometimes a shop may involve multiple types of infringement. above brands, they have many cases in prosecution every year.

The following six typical infringements are shared: Hula Hoop+Frisbee: all of them are intellectual property rights of a toy company in California, USA, and are represented by Keith Law Firm. With the help of translation tools, it will be found that they are infringing brand words; Therefore, the seller’s infringement is due to the pit dug by the translation tool! Therefore, some special and suspicious words, sellers must pay attention to the investigation!

Some time ago, TEMU’s first case was Frisbee, which attracted many sellers. Therefore, although the flow of hot words is high, the use risk is also great, and Mai Jia strongly recommends finding substitutes.

Smiley: It contains a text+graphic trademark, which is the rights protection of Brickell Law Firm in Florida. The brand filed a case for the first time this year. Although it belongs to a rookie, it belongs to a rising star who has made a blockbuster without saying anything. In June, it concentrated on 10 fire rights protection, mass killing, and many sellers lay their guns. Its graphic trademark smiley face is still used by many products in the market. Mai Jia speculates that there are still many sellers who may be frozen in the future. Please ask sellers and friends to thoroughly check and clean up the text and pictures.

Emoji: word mark, agent of HSP Law Firm, has over 100 cases since 2020. In addition, Apple’s Emoji icon copyright, that is, the chat expression pack used on weekdays, is still registered with a large number of copyrights. At present, no case has been filed for rights protection, so we still need to be vigilant.

Chevrolet, Toyota, Cadillac, etc.: These brands owned by GM began to defend their rights last year, and many sellers were sued. The types of infringement involved, such as: the product contains brand patterns and brand words, the title/five points/description in the link contains for plus brand words, or even the direct use of brand words, will become the targets of prosecution. Of course, if the for plus brand words are frozen and the funds involved are large, we can analyze in detail whether we choose to respond to the lawsuit according to the actual situation of the case. Similar to this kind of case, Mai Jia has a successful case of helping the seller claim the plaintiff’s compensation! Nevertheless, in order to reduce unnecessary trouble, Mai Jia suggested not using it as much as possible.

footwear, Converse, Nike: factory friends should pay special attention to the suggestion that the appearance, sole and graphic trademark of shoes should be completely redesigned, and then the abrasive products should be produced after comparing with such graphic trademarks to avoid gun collision;

Tips extended to manufacturers: If the products with brand logos of manufacturers are provided to e-commerce sellers for cross-border sales, the intellectual property rights of the current country (including. com international domain registration) should be laid out in advance. Previously, some manufacturers’ brands were registered by sellers, resulting in heavy losses for manufacturers. Tips extended to the seller: Store brand name, you must register. com international domain. At the beginning of the year, someone successfully registered the international domain corresponding to the seller’s store brand name and built an independent station! Finally, the case of the store’s product complaints being removed from the shelves! What should I do if I encounter TRO freeze First of all, the seller must respond as soon as possible after receiving the frozen mail, so as not to delay. You can find the corresponding service organization to make the following analysis: the nature and severity of infringement, the current status of the case, the plaintiff’s law firm, etc., and make a choice according to the account situation: settlement, responding to the lawsuit, or giving up? Among them, there are two kinds of settlement: individual settlement: for ordinary real infringement frozen shops, the frozen funds are less, so we can consider individual settlement and choose the best lawyer settlement scheme; Group reconciliation: the group originated in the second half of 2022, and most of the cases against GBC have the advantage of effectively reducing compensation. Its core rule is: cases with the same brand (same brand and different case numbers are also acceptable) must be satisfied. What kind of shops are suitable for group tours? 1. Several slightly infringing shops with low frozen sales; 2. A number of stores based on frozen funds and complementary sales can be grouped, such as AB two stores, where A frozen funds have high sales and B frozen funds have low sales, and the sales are higher than frozen funds, which is suitable for group reconciliation, similar to the barrel effect. Respond to the lawsuit: mainly in view of the real infringement, the huge frozen funds and the plaintiff’s refusal to give in, and the false accusation of non-infringement, combined with the cost of legal fees, we can comprehensively consider whether to choose to respond to the lawsuit. Usually, the purpose of responding to a lawsuit is not to go to court to pronounce a loss/win, but to make the large settlement money more reasonable, or to let the plaintiff compensate the seller for the loss in non-infringement cases; Because both sides will lose both sides if they go on with this lawsuit, except, of course, those local tyrants who want to vent their anger. Give up: Give up considering all factors, with special attention: the current defendant’s subject, information and email address cannot be used in other US fund platforms such as paypal, so as to avoid freezing due to association. Maijia’s real infringement case deals with the sharing of lying guns and the freezing caused by association: it is better to solve intractable cases such as selling association or unknown association by super lawyers; German site obtained evidence and successfully frozen this site: the plaintiff sued maliciously, and after negotiation by lawyers, his lawsuit was unreasonable, and finally the lawsuit was withdrawn and the link was restored. Compensation after deduction of default judgment: cases with default judgment can be handled, but most of them still need small compensation; Some law offices can compensate and unfreeze in advance before the judgment is deducted, without taking the judgment deduction process. Talk about the motion for adjournment again. Low compensation: it is very dangerous if the large-sum freezing case is about to be absent. We will talk about it after the judgment, and the seller’s loss will be very large. Delaying the negotiation in time can effectively reduce the loss. group reconciliation: The above picture shows a perfect case of group reconciliation. It costs $ 1.4W for 7 accounts to be reconciled separately, and finally, 7 accounts are unfrozen for a total of $ 2K, saving more than 80,000 RMB!

Low compensation for responding to the lawsuit: It is usually suggested to talk about reconciliation in real infringement cases. If the reconciliation is not ideal, it is usually better to consider whether to respond to the lawsuit and save a lot of money. General case settlement/response/process general case process: obtaining evidence (the validity period of evidence is usually 3 years)-prosecution-TRO temporary injunction motion-the court signs TRO (the store funds are frozen, the validity period of TRO is 14 days, and the general plaintiff will extend it 1-2 times to seamlessly connect with the preliminary injunction, and each extension is 14 days)-Preliminary injunction motion (21 days). Usually, the 21-day freeze in the mail is a preliminary injunction motion, which gives the seller a sense of urgency. If the seller fails to respond in court, the court will sign a preliminary injunction, also known as a permanent injunction, and the store will remain frozen until the case is over. The above process cases tend to be stable. At this stage, most plaintiff law firms can obtain the freezing and sales data of the defendant’s store through the platform to support settlement negotiations. The settlement between the plaintiff and the defendant’s lawyer is coming to an end. Usually, the plaintiff will apply for a motion of absence to put pressure on the defendant. If no settlement is reached before applying for the motion of absence, it will enter the stage of judgment and deduction.

Settlement process: receiving TRO-the seller collects TRO-related information, such as case number, infringing products, whether it is really infringing, frozen money, sales volume and so on, and finds the relevant institutions to analyze and determine the lawyer’s treatment plan-submitting the materials, and finally reaching a settlement agreement and signing it after several rounds of negotiations-paying the settlement money and lawyer’s service fee-checking the accounts of the plaintiff’s law firm-submitting the withdrawal letter-sending it to the e-commerce platform+defendant’s lawyer-

Litigation process: The litigation process is similar to the settlement process. Usually, in the middle stage, the defendant’s lawyer combines the negotiation of responding to the lawsuit (commonly known as talking while fighting) to reach an agreement with the lowest cost and the fastest time, and finally sign, pay and collect the withdrawal documents for review and thawing. Almost such cases, including cases of non-infringement and claiming compensation from the plaintiff, will eventually be settled through negotiation, unless, of course, the lawyers or brands of both parties have personal grievances …

For a detailed text introduction of the above process, interested friends can also get relevant information by sending the word “process” through [Mai Jia Support] WeChat official account. Over the years, each law firm has filed a case for display The above is the case data of several major law firms over the years, and only the top three are counted here. These head law firms have made remarkable achievements in the field of intellectual property rights protection. It can be seen that the number of cases in the head law firm is increasing every year, and at the same time, the number of new plaintiff rights protection law firms has also increased sharply in the last two years. Through data analysis, Mai Jia expects to reach 1,500 cases this year. If 150 defendants are counted in each case, more than 200,000 stores may be sued this year, which directly affects the livelihood of at least hundreds of thousands to more than one million people behind the stores. Some sellers contacted by Mai Jia are unable to compensate huge compensation because of the prosecution of large stores, which leads to the dissolution of the company in situ. Therefore, sellers and friends need to strictly carry out the investigation of product pictures and texts that have been put on the shelves; In addition, Maijia can provide new product infringement investigation services, and sellers and friends in need can contact us. Operation flow of self-service case investigation of Maijia case self-service inquiry system: enter WeChat official account-click navigation-case investigation commission-register account-submit the case, and only enter the case number in the correct format to inquire the case-submit it to verify the progress. If you can’t find it, you can contact Mai Jia to change it, which is mostly caused by the format problem of the case number. The self-help inquiry tool for this case was independently developed by Mai Jia, which is good news for the infringing seller, and it is convenient for the seller’s friends to know the latest progress of the case in real time. This is also the only convenient channel in the industry to check cases and check TRO cases updated in real time in the United States. The seller’s friends can know the latest sued brands in advance through daily inspection, and make countermeasures as soon as possible before freezing the funds, which can effectively reduce the losses. FAQ Q1: I can’t withdraw cash, but I don’t know anything without any notice. What should I do? A: The following ways: 1) Check the infringement through the content in the off-shelf link; 2) Consulting platform customer service; 3) Wait for the platform or the plaintiff to send relevant emails. Q2: Is it feasible to choose a complaint for freezing legal cases? Can I appeal through the platform first when I encounter such a problem? No, get a lawyer to deal with it. A: No, it involves law, and the platform complaint cannot be solved. The court needs to withdraw the complaint, and the plaintiff’s law firm submits a letter of withdrawal to the platform, and the account will be unfrozen after approval. Q3: This link of mine has been taken off the shelf for 2 years. Can I still be sued? A: Generally, the time limit for filing a lawsuit is three years, so even if it is removed from the shelf for more than two years, the other party intercepts the evidence during the link’s being put on the shelf, and the lawsuit can be successfully prosecuted. Q4: Is it also suffered from selling? I just sold a product, how did I receive TRO? A: It’s normal. If someone is caught selling during the other party’s evidence collection, they will be intercepted and prosecuted together. Q5: Screenshot forensics? My link was sold in the United States synchronously by other sites. Can they complain if it was displayed but not listed? A: Yes, as long as the link is displayed in the United States and the evidence is intercepted by the other party, the prosecution can be successful; Many plaintiffs use screenshots to obtain evidence. Q6: Can you tell me how much the settlement is? What is the asking price if you choose to settle the other party? A: We can’t tell you this, but we can estimate it based on this information, such as whether there is real infringement, frozen money, sales volume, case status, and the plaintiff’s law firm’s claim style, and then combine our experience to estimate Q7: What are the consequences of giving up? If you give up directly, what are the consequences? A: 1) the account will be sentenced to a high judgment in the United States; 2) All the funds in the account have been deducted (except Ali platform); 3) The fund withdrawal authority of the account is permanently restricted (except for Ali-based platforms), with the exception of special attention: in recent two years, Ali-based stores have been deducted from their funds in Singapore after the default judgment in the United States, so you need to be vigilant! Q8: Will you go to the United States without handling the impact? If I give up, will it affect my going to America later? A: According to the current policy, civil judgments do not affect entry and exit, but there is no guarantee for future changes in international relations and policies, and the current cases are all aimed at accounts and related accounts that can be found through accounts. Q9: I want to use up my inventory: I still have a lot of inventory. Can I continue to sell after the settlement? A: No, if the product itself infringes, the product cannot be sold. If the infringing trademark is deleted only by trademark infringement, the new link can continue to be sold. Q10: I’m talking. Will I be absent? I went to a lawyer to talk about reconciliation, so I won’t be absent? A: Not necessarily. The settlement is just an out-of-court settlement, and it doesn’t involve going to court (unless, of course, the conciliator’s lawyer includes extended service). The absence here is for all defendants who have not dropped the lawsuit and have not postponed it, including the account under negotiation. Through the above sharing, I believe that the sellers who didn’t go to the scene also have a more comprehensive understanding of TRO infringement freeze. Today, with the globalization of economy and trade, more and more products are going abroad, and more and more small and medium-sized enterprises are going out to sea by boat to expand the international market space for domestic brands. Maijia Support will continue to provide services and help for cross-border e-commerce enterprises, escort the friends of Maijia who export across the border and contribute its own strength.