Entering February 2024, another wave of infringement cases is coming. It is the Spring Festival, but the overseas intellectual property circle can not care whether it can have a good year, it should be sued and sued, it should be frozen, and at present, a group of sellers are hurriedly removing products from the shelves, and some sellers have received a TRO notice.
And recently, the U.S. Patent Office is piling up certificates, and some data show that in one week of January alone, more than 800 patents officially came into effect.
The monthly sales exceed 6,000 orders, and common products are being sued for infringement
Last Friday (February 2), the patent lawsuit filed by the shoelace brand HIC IPCO LLC &hickies opco LLC &tcj i, LLC was officially accepted by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
It is understood that the lawsuitIt involves not only trademark infringement, but also design patent infringement, the plaintiff brand entrusted Boies Schiller Flexner LLP to ** the caseThe case number is:24-cv-00952
Instead of traditional lacing, Hickies designs laces that can be adjusted according to individual foot shapes and preferences, and there is no need to manually remove the laces, making it easier to put on and take off. Unlike traditional laces, Hickies' elastic laces are shorter, and one section only fits into two holes and does not run through the entire shoe, which also means that consumers can freely match colors and be more personalized.
As you can see on Hickies' official website, the product is priced at $17$99 for a set, each set contains 14 straps (the amount of foothole for 1 pair of shoes), and each strap is 116 mm long.
These slip-on laces are suitable for any shoe with eyelets and are made of durable thermoplastic elastomer that can be adjusted.
Judging from the content of the product reviews, consumers are very satisfied with it. Many parents buy the laces for their children, and some have become loyal customers of the brand.
On Amazon, search for "lazy shoelaces" as a keywordThe results show that there are 185 listings for sale, some of the listing products have a higher number of reviews, and the price is 6$99 to $16It's more than $59, and this part of the product is very similar to Hickies.
Although there are less than 200 listings on sale, it does not mean that there is no market for this product. Yien.com noticed,There are a number of lazy shoelace products that have accumulated more than 60,000 reviews on Amazon, with monthly sales of more than 3,000 pieces
Take one of the lazy laces as an example, which is very different from Hickies shoelaces in terms of design, and since it was launched on Amazon, the product has left nearly 80,000 reviews with a rating of 46 stars, with sales of more than 6,000 pieces last month. There is also a similar elastic shoelace that has nearly 30,000 reviews.
At present, the Hickies brand has initiated an intellectual property protection lawsuit, involving a number of U.S. trademarks such as Hickies and Replace the Lace under the brand, and the registered categories are 26th and 23rd. There are also eight U.S. design patents that have an effective date from 2014 to 2017 and are still in force.
It is reported that the plaintiff has filed a TRO with the court, although it has not yet been approved, but it is expected to start freezing as soon as next week, and the sellers with similar appearances mentioned above should be investigated as soon as possible to avoid being TRO.
International brands have repeatedly joined forces with Amazon to sue
Last month, Gopro, an internationally renowned action camera brand, filed an intellectual property lawsuit with Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, which still involves trademark and copyright infringement. The case was officially accepted by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on January 4 with case number 2024-CV-20037.
Founded in 2002 in the United States, GoPro was initially just an ordinary consumer electronics company specializing in the production of small action cameras in the United States. But by 2013, GoPro's share of the U.S. market had risen to 45%.
Not to mention that in recent years, self-sports and outdoor sports have become increasingly popular, and the versatile GoPro action camera has been widely recognized by extreme sports groups such as surfing, skiing, extreme cycling and skydiving, and has become a popular consumer equipment. Today's GoPro has almost become synonymous with "extreme sports cameras", and it is the king of the action camera industry.
However, the more big-name infringement occurs, the more often it occurs, and GoPro has repeatedly raised the banner of rights protection.
According to the information of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, GoPro has a wide range of word and pattern trademark information, including scientific instruments, communication tools, fitness equipment, education and entertainment. A trademark patent search using "gopro" alone yielded 406 results
And this time, there are not a few trademarks defended by GoPro, which are involvedand other registered trademarks.
In addition, GoPro also has more than 100 copyrighted contents in the scope of this rights protection.
GoPro has intellectual property rights enforcement cases almost every year, and even jointly sued multiple infringers with Amazon in 2021.
It is reported that counterfeiters at that time counterfeited GoPro's camera accessories, including floating grips, "The Handler" and "3-Way" grips, extension arms and tripod mounts, etc., and tried to sell them on Amazon. In the end, Amazon and GoPro jointly filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Amazon has always had "zero tolerance" for infringement, and last year it also joined forces with Canon to crack down on it several times, deleting thousands of infringing listings on the platform.
A number of common products are being sued for the second time, and thousands of patents have come into effect
In addition to the above two cases, there are also a number of common products that have been caught in infringement storms recently.
Portable urinals
On January 31, plaintiff Oz Urinal, LLC appointed Keener & Associates, Pc.The infringement case filed by the law firm in relation to the appearance has been formally accepted by the court, and the case number is 24-CV-00849.
As can be seen from the appearance of the product, it is designed to be retractable, the product is reusable, and it is suitable for outdoor camping, long-distance travel, etc.
The design patent involved in this protection was issued on December 25, 2018, and the patent protects the design of the retractable part. It is reported that the patent has a record of rights protection as early as 2022, when 668 stores were sued. In this case, 264 stores became defendants.
popsocketsMobile phonesBrackets
On January 26, the brand Popsockets LLCThe trademark infringement case was accepted by the U.S. District Court with case number 24-CV-00693, and the ** law firm is an old acquaintance - GBC.
It is reported that the trademark numbers involved in this case include:
Swag pose
On January 23, the Rafael Marcio Melillo Bastos brand defended its rights against the copyright of the Swag pose, and it was officially accepted, the case number is 24-CV-00609, and the ** law firm is another old cross-border acquaintance - Keith.
The swag pose is very common, but sellers should not be careless, it has copyright, and this is the second time that the brand has initiated an activation.
There are also many new infringement cases such as lamps and pet products. At the same time, Yien.com noticed that the U.S. Patent Office is intensively issuing patent validation letters recently, and some data show that in January alone, thousands of patents began to take effect.