Sellers beware! Hot-selling products during peak season may infringe patents

With the arrival of summer, sales of seasonal hot-selling products such as handheld fans, water guns, and water balls have soared on major cross-border e-commerce platforms. The monthly sales of some popular items even reach tens of thousands of pieces, attracting many sellers to compete to join this business opportunity.

However, it should be noted that while pursuing profits, sellers must also be wary of potential infringement risks.

Peak season is coming! Be careful of infringement risks

Recently, a number of summer products that have obtained design patents in the United States have been made public, covering multiple categories such as handheld fans, pool chlorinators, water balls, neck fans, etc. For example, frog-shaped pool chlorinators, monster-shaped water toys, and bear-shaped handheld fans have all passed the review of the Patent Office. In short, if sellers sell these products on e-commerce platforms without authorization, they may face infringement charges.

Swimming pool chlorinator appearance patent information, source: Patsnap

In fact, such situations are not uncommon in the field of cross-border e-commerce.

At the end of last year, an egg-shaped projection lamp product was removed from Amazon due to appearance patent issues. Earlier this year, a shopping cart handlebar cover also attracted the attention of sellers due to the application of appearance patents. Since the appearance of this product is relatively common, sellers can easily step on the minefield of infringement when selling it.

The link between the patent for the egg-shaped projector lamp and the product that was taken off the shelves due to complaints

Image source: Amazon

Not long ago, Amazon, Walmart, eBay and other e-commerce platforms experienced a large-scale removal of outdoor lighting products. The reason may be closely related to a patent for "outdoor solar decorative lights" more than ten years ago. This incident not only affected many small sellers, but also some well-known brands. Some sellers even faced huge claims.

Patent for outdoor solar decorative lights, source: Google Patents

Therefore, while pursuing profits, sellers must also pay attention to product compliance to avoid losses caused by infringement risks.

The "trap" of infringement cloak

What is even more worrying is that some sellers have fallen into the infringement trap without knowing it . Previously, Amazon sellers reported that their links had been removed, but they suddenly received a TRO notice and their funds were frozen for $2,000, but they did not know the specific reason for the infringement.

The seller's 0 sales link was accused of infringement, source: Zhiwu Bushu

As we all know, as major e-commerce platforms and brands pay more and more attention to intellectual property protection, once sellers cross the red line, they will face serious consequences such as frozen funds and store closures.

However, not all infringements are intentional by sellers.

Some bad actors take advantage of sellers' vague understanding of intellectual property laws and regulations, maliciously register trademarks or impersonate original creators, and induce sellers to sell infringing goods . They then freeze sellers' account funds through litigation and illegally demand settlement funds or infringement compensation.

For example, in 2020, criminals forged documents to register the trademark and appearance patent of a wax-melting hair removal machine in the United States, filed infringement complaints against thousands of Chinese cross-border sellers, and demanded high settlement payments, with the total amount being staggering.

Although this kind of thing is hard to prevent, sellers still need to be more careful.

As cross-border e-commerce compliance becomes increasingly strict, major platforms and brands are also constantly strengthening their protection of intellectual property rights. Especially before the peak season, sellers must always pay attention to product infringement issues and remain vigilant. They must not only avoid active infringement, but also learn to identify and prevent various infringement traps. Do not take chances to avoid unnecessary losses.