Big news! The first infringement case of 2020 has come, sellers should check their own products immediately!

But foreign law firms did not stop. On January 2, a law firm from Illinois, USA, filed the first case of the year!

On January 2, the brand of the internationally renowned animated film and television work Miraculous Ladybug launched a rights protection action, represented by a new American law firm, AM Sullivan Law, LLC.

Ladybug Girls is an animated film and television work jointly produced by France, Japan, the United States and South Korea. It is set in Paris, France and tells the story of two high school students who transform themselves with the help of magic elves and work together to fight against evil forces.

The characters are well-developed and the storyline is light-hearted and humorous. The series has won a large number of fans around the world.

As the film and television works are popular, their peripheral products are also selling like hot cakes.

The reason for the brand's lawsuit was double infringement of trademark and copyright.

The infringing trademarks involved are "Miraculous" and "Miraculous Ladybug" , and the trademark registration categories are 9 scientific instruments, 16 office supplies, 25 clothing, shoes and hats, 28 fitness equipment, and 41 education and entertainment.

Copyright infringement does not limit categories, which means that no matter what category it is, as long as the related images of "Ladybug Girl" are used, it is an infringement.

（Search results on Amazon）

If you search on major platforms now, you can also find a large number of Miraculous Ladybug-related peripheral products, including clothes, accessories, dolls, mobile phone cases, school bags, etc. Sellers should quickly check their stores and remove related infringing products in a timely manner.

In addition to Ladybug, there is another major anime IP involved in infringement, namely Stan Lee, the father of Marvel, who initiated rights protection on Christmas Eve.

At that time, we were represented by the HSP law firm. We did not expect that HSP would act so quickly this time, freezing the case in just over twenty days.

According to Chenzi, some sellers on Ebay had received a freeze email from Stan Lee on January 3, but Amazon, Wish, and AliExpress have not received any freeze news yet, but it is expected to be soon.

This case is mainly about Stan Lee trademark infringement . Chenzi searched the platform using the keyword "Stan Lee" and still found a large number of related products.

（Search results on Amazon）

Sellers should also strengthen self-inspection and remove related products in a timely manner.

The two cases above involve trademark and copyright infringement. Let’s talk about these two types of infringements that are often encountered in cross-border e-commerce.

For example, in the above case, if the words "Miraculous Ladybug" and "Stan Lee" appear in the listing, it will be judged as infringement.

Generally speaking, sellers with a little experience will not make mistakes in trademark infringement. Let’s focus on copyright infringement.

The focus of copyright protection is original works. In fact, whether copyright registration is done or not, the author enjoys the copyright. However, if copyright registration is not done, it is difficult to prove who the original author is.

Another type is where you don’t know you’re using someone else’s pictures (this usually happens when someone else has complained about you). For example, some sellers will use pictures from Taobao suppliers. The safest way to avoid this kind of infringement is to take product pictures yourself.

If you encounter infringement on Amazon, your listing may be removed from the shelves at the very least, and your sales privileges may be removed at the worst. In more serious cases, Amazon may freeze your account funds to pay for claims from the right holder.

As the new year begins, some brands have begun to defend their rights. Judging from several brand rights protection cases last year, brands’ awareness of rights protection is getting stronger and stronger.

In 2020, sellers must start to cultivate their awareness of intellectual property rights, stop relying on luck, and avoid unnecessary infringements.

After all, in today's fiercely competitive Amazon platform, only by keeping a store alive can there be hope.