Etsy shop closed by US law firm

[AndyJ]

Hi Cazme,

Welcome to the forums.

I can't really add much to what has already been said in this thread. You face a difficult decision, on whether to engage with this law firm or just ignore them. The third option, to challenge them in court, would be expensive, time consuming and risky. To be successful in court you would need to argue one of two defences: that the trade marks were being used descriptively - ie the trade mark word(s) was being used solely the tell the buyer the nature of the product, or secondly, the mark was being on a genuine product sold on the open market by the trade mark owner and you were acting as a re-seller of that product. Both these defences would require the services of an American attorney to put them to the court on your behalf, and while it is possible to get you legal expenses paid by the claimant if you were successful, it isn't automatic and lies at the discretion of the court.

So looking at the realistic alternatives - engaging with or ignoring the legal firm - it comes down to your appetite for a fight. If you engage, TME are not going to let you off without paying something, as by engaging with them you are tacitly acknowledging that there may be a basis for the claim. It then becomes a matter of how low they will go in terms of accepting a counter-offer. If you ignore them then you have protection of not being within the jurisdiction of the Chicago court and the fact that it would be costly for TME to pursue any default judgment through the UK courts. Since you still have control of most of your Etsy shop, option two may seem attractive. For those whose entire shop has been suspended, this is not so attractive as it won't get their shop restored.

Beyond those few broad remarks, I cannot advise you on the specific course of action you should take.

[Ana]

Hello everyone!
I use a translation app and please forgive my spelling
I have similar problem. Etsy Trust & Safety sent me a message that my store and credit have been blocked because Etsy has a lawsuit. Link to the lawsuit:
https://www.tme-law.com/case/23-cv-01475
My store sells handmade toys. We have sold 3 books in the past year (not to the US) that involve the brand mentioned. We purchased the books and did not make them ourselves. The invoices for this purchase exist and could be presented. These books were intended for my children. When my children lost interest, I decided to sell the books. Stupidly, without thinking, I sold the books in my store. In my offer I wrote "Quietbook inspired by Peppa Pig."

I hardly made any profit by selling them. 387 euros was my turnover, from this sum we deduct Etsy fees (12%) and shipping costs 13 euros and of course the purchase price of 265 euros that I paid. Thus, my profit was a total of 63 euros!

The claim of the law firm is not in proportion. I am desperate. In the comments here I read that you can fight off the claim.
About my situation:
Plaintiff is located in USA(Illinois)
Brand - in England
Store - in Germany.
My store was completely in German and the target audience Germany. 90% of my order came from Germany.

My questions:
1. can a US judgment be enforced in Germany and is this judgment legally binding in Germany?
2. do I have to respond to this lawsuit? What will happen if I do not?
3. will Etsy give my data (name, address) to the law firm? The data was in my imprint, so I do not understand why I was not directly named and me only so a general complaint was transmitted ...
4. is it advisable in my situation to contact the law firm and explain my situation? Or to offer a settlement and if so, how much should this settlement be?
5. what happens to my credit on Etsy (which was 3000 euros)? The money is frozen according to Etsy.
6. is there a possibility that my store will be reopened?

My store exists since 2021 and ran very successfully, only with 5 star movements and I have never violated rights before.
Thank you all in advance! And hope for your advice and help.
Best regards from Germany

[AndyJ]

Hi Ana

Wilkommen!

As we have explained in the many other postings on this forum, there are two aspects to this issue: the extent to which you are legally liable (Haftpflict) for an alleged infringement before a US court, and secondly, how important it is to regain control of your Etsy shop. Your questions relate to both of these factors.

If the only words on your Etsy shop which included a reference to Peppa Pig were the ones you quoted, then you have not infringed the Entertainment One Inc trade mark for that name. Virtually all trade mark legislation across the world includes the exception which allows for the word(s) of the mark to be used descriptively. This is the case in the USA, in the UK and in Germany. Section 23 of the Gesetz über den Schutz von Marken und sonstigen Kennzeichen (Markengesetz - MarkenG, geändert durch das Gesetz vom 17. July 2017) says the following;

§ 23 Benutzung von Namen und beschreibenden Angaben, Ersatzteilgeschäft

Der Inhaber einer Marke oder einer geschäftlichen Bezeichnung hat nicht das Recht, einem Dritten zu untersagen, im geschäftlichen Verkehr 1. dessen Namen oder Anschrift zu benutzen, 2. ein mit der Marke oder der geschäftlichen Bezeichnung identisches Zeichen oder ein ähnliches Zeichen

als Angabe über Merkmale oder Eigenschaften von Waren oder Dienstleistungen, wie insbesondere ihre Art, ihre Beschaffenheit, ihre Bestimmung, ihren Wert, ihre geographische Herkunft oder die Zeit ihrer Herstellung oder ihrer Erbringung, zu benutzen, oder

3. die Marke oder die geschäftliche Bezeichnung als Hinweis auf die Bestimmung einer Ware, insbesondere als Zubehör oder Ersatzteil, oder einer Dienstleistung zu benutzen, soweit die Benutzung dafür notwendig ist,

sofern die Benutzung nicht gegen die guten Sitten verstößt.

By including the words 'inspired by' (or the equivalent in German) you have demonstrated that you are using the words Peppa Pig descriptively and anyone reading the phrase would know that you were not claiming this was a genuine Peppa Pig product. That is your starting point. You have have not infringed the trade mark.

Turning to you actual questions:

1. If the US court in Illinois makes a default judgment against you because you failed to put in a defence, then in theory TME Law could then ask the German courts to enforce the judgment using international law. However this would be expensive to do and there is a strong chance that a German court would refuse to make an enforcement order if they felt that you had not been given a fair opportunity to defend yourself in the USA and that the US court lacked jurisdiction to deal with the case against you in the first place.

2. Because I don't think the US court has any jurisdiction over you, you don't have to respond to the claim. However as long as the temporary restraining order (gerichtliche Verfügung) is in place Etsy will not reinstate your shop, and you will not be able to access your money.

3. Even if the US court does not go on to hear the full complaint, it could issue an order to Etsy to release your personal details, and because Etsy is an American company, they would have to comply. I suspect (but I have no evidence to support my assertion) that very few of these cases go to full trial because the scheme works perfectly well without doing that, since most people want to get their Etsy shop back, and the only way to do that is for TME to withdraw their notice to Etsy. As for why TME didn't use your correct dtails, I think this is because they really aren't interested in each individual, and only want you to pay their unreasonable demand.

4. You can certainly contact the law firm if you wish, but they are going to fight hard to get whatever money they can from you. Since you have done nothing wrong, this amounts to extortion (Erpressung). I think it would advisible to speak to a German lawyer first and see what they advise in your specific case. I don't know how much TME Law would accept in settlement, but as you will have seen from other postings here, you can be sure it will be at least a thousand Euros/dollars, possibly more.

5. My understanding of Etsy terms and conditions is that they will not release your money until they have been told by TME Law that the matter has been resolved.

6. Again based on my understanding of the Etsy terms, I think they will only reopen your shop once TME Law withdraw the complaint.


I'm sorry I can't be more helpful. This is a very clever operation and there are no quick fixes for people like you who have done nothing wrong but still can't get access to their shop and the money in their account. As there is now some academic interest in this abuse of the US legal system, it may be that it will get shut down at some stage by the courts or the legislators, but I don't think that is going to happen soon.

Tschüss,

Andy

[Nikita]

Hello,
Sorry for my English

I have the same situation. TME-Law proposes to settle the dispute by settlement agreement.
Tell me, did anyone conclude a settlement agreement with them?
Do they (TME-Law) stop pursuit?
After the settlement agreement, did TME-Law file reclaims for the same dispute?

Thank you in Advance

[Ana]

Dear Andy,

Thank you very much for your answer and clarification!

I would like to share something important about my case. The name Peppa Pig was used and yes, the description very clearly stated "inspired by Peppa Pig". It was immediately clear to anyone who looked at this book that this handmade book did not come from the production of the "Peppa Pig" brand.

Quietbook was made of fabric and represented the house of the Pig family. The Pig family was made of fabric as finger puppets. The dolls, house and accessories looked very similar to the characters from the series. I am concerned about this. The more I think about this issue, the more questions arise. Surely I was not allowed to sell these books. Now, unfortunately, it happened and I can not change this fact.

I will contact a German lawyer and very likely write to the law firm. When I contact the law firm, I will be honest and tell my story. I will present my purchase receipts for these books and also the invoices from the sale of these books from my store. I will negotiate with the law firm and hope for a fair and reasonable resolution.

If we do not come to an agreement, my contact (by mail) could be used against me in this case. Do I incriminate myself by admitting in writing that I sold the books? I still need to know before I make the final decision. In that case, Etsy will not release my store and will not pay out my credit. What happens to my money then? Will Etsy keep the amount or will it be paid to the law firm?

I want to thank you again for everything you do here

[AndyJ]

Hi Ana,

Since you already acknowledge that you were selling the books and TME Law will no doubt have evidence of this, you do not incriminate yourself by explaining how you came to sell the softbooks. Am I right in understanding that you bought these books, and made no changes to them, before reselling them? If that is right then reselling them is within your rights under the exhaustion doctrine. This doctrine is explained in Article 15 of the EU Trade Marks Directive 2015/2436

Erschöpfung der Rechte aus der Marke

(1) Eine Marke gewährt ihrem Inhaber nicht das Recht, die Benutzung der Marke für Waren zu untersagen, die unter dieser Marke von ihm oder mit seiner Zustimmung in der Union in Verkehr gebracht worden sind.

(2) Absatz 1 findet keine Anwendung, wenn berechtigte Gründe es rechtfertigen, dass der Inhaber sich dem weiteren Vertrieb der Waren widersetzt, insbesondere wenn der Zustand der Waren nach ihrem Inverkehrbringen verändert oder verschlechtert ist.

The problem, if there is one here, is whether the original books which you bought infringed the Peppa Pig trade marks even before you bought them, that is were they being sold ohne Zustimmung. The fact that some elements within the books resembled the Peppa Pig stories does not amount to infringement of the trade marks. Trade marks are purely external to the product, such as any advertising or packaging. Your German lawyer can analyse this aspect in more detail for you.

As for the money in your Etsy account, if the US court awarded damages against you then it is possible that the amount in your account could be sequestrated (beschlagnahmen) by the court to pay those damages, as they are the only assets within the jurisdiction of the court. But that would only happen after a full trial, and as I mentioned previously, I don't think that most of these cases go to trial because the scheme works quite well without doing that and saves extra costs.

[Ana]

Dear Andy,

Thank you for your quick reply!

That is correct. I bought the books in a handmade store.

I did not alter the books before reselling them.

I don't think this store has a license to sell these items as originals. The item description of the store also said "inspired by Peppa Pig".

I will contact a German lawyer and then write to the law firm.

Thank you so much for your help and advice!

Have a nice weekend!

[AndyJ]

Note to anyone intending to post in this thread
We have now had two posters on this thread ask for their comments to be deleted. I assume this is because they have come under pressure from TME Law as part of a settlement negotiation. That leads me to suspect that TME Law are aware of the forum and monitor it. On that basis, if you wish to post about your experience with that law firm - and we encourage you to do so - you should not make any statements here which could be construed as an admission of liability.
Another condition of a settlement with TME Law may well be that you will be required to agree to be bound by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) concerning the settlement. This would prevent you telling other forum members about the outcome of the settlement or even that you have settled. Please bear this in mind.

[Ukshop]

Please can you advise on outcomes ppl have experienced. TME are still actively using this tactic on small Etsy stores.

[Onetwothree]

Hi again wantasimplelife,

New member DanielNorman88 appears to be having the same experience as you. He has named the law firm as TME Law of Chicago. If this is the same firm (and their operation sounds identical) then we may be moving forward a bit. TME Law does not appear to be registered in the state of Illinois, although there is firm of the same name in Pennsylvania who appear to specialise estate planning (ie will writing) and neither attorney listed with the Pennsylvania firm is licensed to practice in Illinois.

The TME law connected to the links you were given reveal there are two attonrneys with the firm: Martin F Trainor and Sameeul Haque. Both appear to be licensed to practice law in Illinois. Martin Trainor was previously with the law firm Greer, Burns & Crain, Ltd and was admiited to the Illinois State Bar Association in 2020. Sameeul Haque was, and maybe still is, a staff attorney with the Corporate Accountability Lab of Chicago. He was admitted the ISBA in 2019 . The organistation for whom he works/ed, CAL has the following mission: to unleash "the creative potential of the law to protect people and the planet from corporate abuse"'. You can find other stuff about both attorneys if you google their names.

So having established who we are dealing with, let's look at their operation. It is a fairly well-worn, and distinctly dubious, path in the US. First find some people on the internet who may be doing something which might involve someone else's intellectual property. Second go to the firms whose IP may be involved and say something like: 'Hey I can make you lots of money if you authorise me to go and chase these people who are ripping you off' (some law firms forget to do that stage, and pretend they are representing a big company like Sony). Then thirdly the law firm files a claim with the court in which the alleged infringers are just a group of anonymous people listed in an annex. The courthouse (not the judge) rubber stamps the claim and hey presto you have the sort of document you have seen on the TME website which scares companies like Etsy into giving out your details and suspending your account.

The law firm, armed with the details handed to them by the intermediaries such as Etsy or Facebook or Ebay, then make demands for ridiculous amounts of money to make the threat of litigation go away. And of course many people are so scared, they pay up. However the plan has a flaw, which is that the US courts (who regretably tend to condone or at least don't discourage this kind of behaviour) have no jurisdiction over anyone who lives outside the USA. So the lawyers like Mr Trainor and Mr Haque can get as many default judgments as they want, but they have no means of enforcing them. Yes, in theory they could submit an application to the High Court of England and Wales for the judgment to be enforced, but the UK court would not entertain this if it was clear that a British defendant had not been given a chance to defend himself before the US court, and secondly they would not allow the application if the tort which is the subject of the submission would not be applicable under UK law. The cast iron precedence for this is a case known as Lucasfilm Ltd v Andrew Ainsworth in which the UK Supreme Court refused to enforce the judgment of a Californian court in which George Lucas alleged that Mr Ainsworth had infringed the copyright in the Star Wars stormtrooper helmets. Furthermore the court said there was no copyright infringement under UK law. And bringing a case for enforcement in the High Court of England and Wales is very costly. For those reasons, this tin pot law firm in Chicago are not going bother you if you just ignore them; they will be making too much money from their own citizens to worry about a few slipping through the net.

I have to conclude by saying, this is not legal advice! I am not your lawyer, and if you still feel unsure about how you should deal with these claims, please consult a solicitor or Citizens Advice.

I am having the same issue with this law-company. At best they only have an Etsy store name and my email of course.
I’m in the mind of just ignoring the emails because I’m Uk based. I’m not trying to be arrogant. I have sold little on Etsy not even in the hundreds. They gave a summons along with loads of other companies names. Which is for next week. Hardly no time if I was going to fight it. I’m reluctant to contact them based on the fact I would be admitting I’ve done something. I’m not bothered about my store but it is a ballache to say the least.

[pleasehelp2023]

Hopefully this might help someone in the future. Without going into too much detail I did manage to get my shop back.

With Etsy unfortunately they will only accept resolutions from the law firm (confirmation you’ve been taken off the list), so if you’re set on getting your shop back I think the only way is to either make a settlement or get solicitors advice. I did pay to settle this but it was no where near what was originally requested. It took around a week after the settlement for my shop to be reopened but I was chasing Etsy a lot on this.

-new member here; how did you do the settlement with the law firm? did you hire a lawyer? or you emailed them directly?

[cihantkt]

Hello, I'm having the same problem. TME law firm filed a lawsuit against me and they want $500 to settle. I don't live in America and I don't care about my etsy account. Can anyone give me advice on what I should do?

[pleasehelp2023]

.

[pleasehelp2023]

Hello, I'm having the same problem. TME law firm filed a lawsuit against me and they want $500 to settle. I don't live in America and I don't care about my etsy account. Can anyone give me advice on what I should do?

Hi Cihantkt, how did you contact TME law?

[CON]

Hi, my online store has been targeted by a similar copyright claim. We don't believe we have done anything wrong and we are based in the UK.

Can anyone tell me if any of these cases actually went through to court and the judge made a ruling? Or if they have tried to pursue any of these rulings in the UK?

I think that it is a scare tactic but it was mentioned in "A SAD Scheme of Abusive Intellectual Property Litigation" by Eric Goldman that some cases like this have been granted as a default judgement in the court. He specifically references a case where the judge ordered $100,000 from each defendant in "Ontel Prods. Corp. v. The Unincorporated Ass'ns Identified in Schedule A". Obviously that is an obscene amount of money that would bankrupt us, and is completely unfair with no opportunity to defend ourselves in a foreign court.