Category Archives: Counterfeiting

U.S. Supreme Court Issues Important Opinion in Coinbase v. Bielski: Reverses 9th Circuit on Stay Issue – PIT IP Tech Cast

Court Makes Mandatory a Stay of District Court Actions on Interlocutory Appeal from Denial of Motion to Compel Arbitration The United States Supreme Court, in a somewhat controversial ruling today, has resolved a circuit split by ruling that interlocutory appeals from a federal district court’s denial of a motion to compel arbitration must automatically stay the underlying District Court case. On June 23, 2023, the Supremes in Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski, No. 22 – 105 (599 U.S. ____ 2023), held that the district court must stay its proceedings while an interlocutory appeal on the question of arbitrability is ongoing.

1. U.S. Supreme Court Issues Important Opinion in Coinbase v. Bielski: Reverses 9th Circuit on Stay Issue 10:07
2. Ransomware Attack on Kaseya 12/5/21 Update – Indictments 08:01
3. Kaseya VSA Supply-Chain Ransomware Attack Update 7-9-21 09:57
4. Kaseya VSA Server Ransomware Attack July 2021 – Lessons and Protocols for Dealing with Data Breach 30:45
5. The Rise of Counterfeiting Litigation in Federal Courts 08:21

Not surprisingly, with the massive sale and transport of goods through Amazon and Alibaba, we are seeing and handling in the courtroom litigation world a lot of actions involving alleged counterfeiting and resultant sales of products on these website marketplaces. These claims involve the freezing of the Amazon Sellers’ financial accounts with Amazon through Federal Court Temporary Restraining Orders (TRO’s) and preliminary injunctions and are being brought primarily pursuant to Federal Statutory Law, potentially allowing for recovery of attorneys fees and punitive damages. These cases are being filed as though they were class actions or mass tort cases, and involve sometimes hundreds of defendants. Most defendants suffer judgment against them by default for failure to answer the complaint, even though the courts are waiving normal service of process rules and are allowing service of the complaint on these defendants by email. Many are foreign entities with fictitious names and in many cases they choose simply to forfeit the amount of money that they have in their Amazon account. Their entire Amazon account is frozen even if the allegedly infringing sales are very small and make up only a small portion of their Amazon funds. These suits fall generally into two camps:

Camp one generally consists of allegations of Federal Lanham Act violations like trademark infringement, false advertising, false designation of origin, counterfeiting and “knock-off”. See: https://www.hh-law.com/intellectual-property-audits-application-prosecution-protection-litigation/trademarks/

Camp 2 is the allegation of patent infringement by the alleged knock-off products. See:  https://www.hh-law.com/intellectual-property-audits-application-prosecution-protection-litigation/patent-infringement/

While these two variations sound similar, they each require a solid understanding of either or both, the Lanham Act/Trademark Law or an understanding of patent law on infringement and USPTO proceedings. There are actions filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and in many other federal jurisdictions. Our Houston Harbaugh law firm intellectual property group which I chair is prepared to prosecute or defend these matters and I can be reached at sneathhm@hh-law.com or 412-288-4013.