Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Re: Cease and desist Chi Irons ebay

Various thoughts....

(1) There are so many frauds out there so the attorney and validity of the demand needs to be checked out.

(2) Yes, an attorney letter should always be taken seriously.

(3) You are only a secondary party to the alleged "bad act" here and so the demand seems harsh. I would not "turn over inventory" at this time.

(4) If this is a legitimate claim, paying a small amount to get out is often reasonable; however, this seems excessive and worth defending if proved credible.

In summary, you can't ignore an attorney letter but there is a great deal here that triggers my orange alert. It is always advisable to get an attorney involved in a situation such as this.

Re: Cease and desist Chi Irons ebay

As a follow up comment that is worthwhile to all forum participants, I have seen other cases of legal action regarding items brought in from China from websites such as dhgate and re-sold on eBay. This is something that resellers need to be very cautious about doing. It is difficult for companies to pursue intellectual property violators out of China. This creates a trap for innocent folks trying to create a home based business for themselves through eBay. Be very careful who you buy from and how you validate the authenticity of items!

Re: Cease and desist Chi Irons ebay

It does not appear that there is an actual suit yet filed against you. However, without more information, it would be a guess for me to tell you anything more based on your question. You should consider hiring an attorney, who very likely may be able to make the argument that a smaller settlement would be more reasonable.

If you would like to discuss this further, please let me know at your earliest convenience.

JDH

Re: Cease and desist Chi Irons ebay

Hello,

Yes, this is something to worry about. Big law firms send this type of letter when they believe someone is a counterfeit retailer of their client's product. Anyone selling the product on ebay that is not an authorized retailer is probably getting the same letter.

The best approach is to call the lawyer back and explain the situation. However, I would consult with a lawyer or have a lawyer make the call for you. You don't want to say anything during the call that might give the Greenberg Traurig lawyer information they can use against you.

The good news is that it is unlikely that they would sue you once they understand the facts of the situation. It is likely that the causes of action they are threatening you with require that a seller knowingly sells counterfeit goods. It is arguable that you would not be considered a "seller" under the relevant statute since you only sell occasionally on ebay and it would be hard for them to show that you knowingly sold counterfeit goods. Also, they are going after sellers that sell more than one set of irons; the actual damages they would likely get after suing you would be less that $1000 and it would cost their client $10 - $20k in attorney fees just to file the case so it's not likely that they would proceed. The statutory damages they claim are not likely to apply in this situation.

Just be glad that you didn't sell several sets of the irons.

Regards,