Foreign Infringers Selling on Amazon Beware: Albright Sees You & Issues Asset Restraint In Preliminary Injunction
Theodore ("Ted") Baroody, Esq.
Patent, Trade Secret, Trademark and Unfair Competition Litigation in the Eastern and Northern Districts of Texas and IPRs at the PTAB
Judge Albright on January 7, 2022 issued a preliminary injunction attempting to address likely infringement of a design patent on seat covers for cars by foreign entities selling on Amazon. These foreign manufacturers often have no physical presence in the U.S. making it difficult or impossible to collect any monetary judgment. The Preliminary Injunction ( link here ) orders that Amazon.com and any "payment service providers" including Pay Pal, must provide certain discovery to the plaintiff and are ordered to:
"restrain and enjoin any accounts and/or funds from being transferred or disposed of until further ordered by this Court, including allowing the transfer of any accounts and/or funds internationally, and provide to Plaintiff information sufficient to show the amounts restrained."
As of this writing, PACER does not indicate a response yet from Amazon, Paypal or other financial institutions, and the defendants have not appeared. It will be interesting to see if this tactic is successful in holding accountable infringers selling on Amazon but hiding out in foreign lands.