Amazon and Epson accuse a bunch of traders of selling knockoff print ink
- Reference: 1715173275
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/05/08/amazon_and_epson_bring_legal/
- Source link:
A [1]lawsuit [PDF] launched in the US says the traders infringed registered trademarks of Seiko Epson Corporation and Epson America, while Amazon.com joined the lawsuit to "permanently prevent… defendants from causing future harm to Amazon's and Epson's customers, reputations, and intellectual property."
According to the legal documents, filed with the US District Court of Washington in Seattle, in 2023 alone, Amazon invested more than $1.2 billion and employed more than 15,000 people to protect its stores from counterfeits, fraud, and other forms of abuses.
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However, some items must have slipped through the net.
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The tech companies claim that between August 2021 and January 2024, the traders created 24 selling accounts on Amazon's Marketplace platform to sell "counterfeit Epson products in interstate commerce." The filing names 23 individual defendants but also includes those unknown to the plaintiffs.
The complaint alleges the defendants worked together to advertise, market, distribute, and sell "inauthentic Epson-branded products. Defendants are associated through common business and shipping addresses, public corporate records, removal addresses, financial accounts, and/or phone numbers."
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Under the terms of becoming a third-party seller on Amazon, traders must agree to "comply with all applicable laws in [the] performance of its obligations and exercise of its rights," the court docs state.
According to the court documents, after Amazon allegedly verified that the defendants' accounts were selling "counterfeit Epson products," it blocked the accounts, using the rights afforded under the third-party trading agreement.
"Defendants' illegal actions have caused Amazon and Epson to expend significant resources to investigate and combat defendants' wrongdoing and to bring this lawsuit to prevent defendants from inflicting future harm to Amazon, Epson, and their customers," the tech companies say in the complaint.
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Examples of products the traders are alleged to have counterfeited include Epson's T522 EcoTank Ink Ultra-high Capacity Bottle Black for select Epson EcoTank printers and Epson 502 EcoTank Ink Ultra-high Capacity Bottle Color Combo Pack Works, according to the plaintiffs.
The two companies bringing the case argued that the selling of counterfeit products "knowingly and willfully used Epson's IP in connection with the advertising, marketing, distributing and selling of counterfeit and infringing Epson products."
As well as alleging trademark counterfeiting and infringement, Amazon and Epson allege false designation of origin and false advertising, breach of contract, and a violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act.
Amazon and Epson asked the court to block the sellers and their agents from advertising and distributing the bootleg products on Amazon's marketplace, or trying to open seller accounts or helping others to do so. They also asked for the offending products to be impounded and destroyed.
In a press statement, Jilana Miller, assistant general counsel, Epson America, said: "The joint lawsuit with Amazon underscores Epson's ongoing enforcement against infringing sellers of Epson ink cartridges, ink bottles, and other consumables," said. "From obtaining General Exclusion Orders in the ITC, to raids and seizures of counterfeit products and regular enforcement through online marketplaces, Epson employs a broad range of efforts to address patent and trademark infringement in the market."
Kebharu Smith, director of Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit, said: "Amazon has a zero-tolerance policy for counterfeit products and collaborated with the Epson team on this joint lawsuit to have a direct impact on these bad actors and permanently prevent them from selling counterfeits."
[7]Garlic chicken without garlic? Critics think Amazon recipe book was cooked up by AI
[8]We never agreed to only buy HP ink, say printer owners
[9]Neural networks are reportedly helping criminals create cheap virtual fake IDs online
[10]Amazon 'protects' against junk AI e-books by limiting author-bots to three a day
Earlier this month, [11]Miami resident Onur Aksoy was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for running a multi-million-dollar operation selling fake Cisco equipment. Aksoy's scheme, which ran from 2014 to 2022, oversaw at least 19 companies in New Jersey and Florida, and had a significant online presence with 15 Amazon accounts and 10 eBay accounts.
In 2021, Amazon's brand protection report said [12]it destroyed more than two million pieces of counterfeit goods last year and denied most would-be sellers from setting up shop in its online marketplace. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/05/08/amazon_epson_v_bakan_et_al.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZjuhniCb46g3C5QIpmDXUwAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZjuhniCb46g3C5QIpmDXUwAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZjuhniCb46g3C5QIpmDXUwAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZjuhniCb46g3C5QIpmDXUwAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZjuhniCb46g3C5QIpmDXUwAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/20/amazon_selling_crockpot_recipe_books/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/11/hp_inc_ink_filing/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/12/ai_news_roundup/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/22/amazon_ai_book_publishing_limit/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/02/fake_cisco_prison/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/11/amazon_fake_goods/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: So, Epson joins HP in the golden ink deal
As I read it, the complaint was that the offenders were passing off the knock-offs as genuine Epson branded, rather than just cheap generic ink.
-A.
Re: So, Epson joins HP in the golden ink deal
If all they were doing was selling cheap ink then all would be fine. But passing it off as Epson Ink... well you cant actually expect Epson NOT to go after them for that.
Re: So, Epson joins HP in the golden ink deal
Eco tank ink is very reasonably priced and much cheaper than laser toner.
Re: So, Epson joins HP in the golden ink deal
Yes it is.
When It came time to refill mine, I bought the cheap ink(talking quality here, it was actually epson ink) and withing a week the print head clogged. It was cheaper to help fill the landfill than buy the cleaning kit.
Re: Eco toner
That's why I'm OK with cartridge systems, and why I'm OK with paying more for them. The EcoTank systems are great...IF you do the volume necessary to keep that ink tank continuously flowing, constantly exchanging old and new inks through the heads. But sadly people don't know this so the wrong demographic is buying the EcoTank products, people without the necessary or 'justified' print volume to warrant the purchase.
Re: Eco toner
By now, the printer designers should know what's necessary to keep things from drying out if unused. If they're not doing so, that's not a "wrong demographic" problem. I wouldn't give printer designers a free pass for poor design.
This is why almost all modern inkjet printers come with a warning similar to: "do not unplug printer when not in use".
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Multiple Marketplace accounts sold fake bottles, cartridges for 2 years+, claim companies"
So Amazon will be refunding all of those fake purchases made over two years until it decided to take action for PR purposes?
No, thought not.
It doesn't take two years to discover this? Heck if they want to find fake, shoddy knock offs with ease, just use their own platform and look at some of the seller names like AJHXEWASAX or HUANKINDOGG
Read HUANKINDOGG as HUANKINGDONG and had an internal chuckle.
Amazon invested more than $1.2 billion and employed more than 15,000 people to protect its stores from counterfeits, fraud, and other forms of abuses.
Clearly not enough when I can do a search and find some in a minute or two, for a variety of products.
Quite. If Amazon genuinely spent that much resources, they should fire those 15,000 people and underlying processes as it is not working.
Or just, you know, actually screen those you let sell shit on your platform. Nah, easier to have lots of fees, sometime confusing structures and profit...
I believe the issue isn't "selling 3rd-party ink for a printer, saying it's brand [randomwordshere]", but instead "selling 3rd-party ink as if it was branded and made by Epson." The second one is counterfeiting, the first one is not.
15,000 people employed to catch counterfeits, fraud, and other forms of abuses
Here are a dozen Amazon purchased thumb drives which were not as advertised. Not only were they falsely advertised, they all resulted in data loss for the consumer:
https://www.grc.com/validrive.htm
Oh, wait. I misunderstood. The 15,000 Amazon drones are there to protect Big-Tech companies like Epson from "fake" products and defend their brand identity. They are not there to protect consumers from fake products with false advertisements.
"...business and shipping addresses, public corporate records, removal addresses, financial accounts, and/or phone numbers."
Yes, a real undercover operation there, no wonder they were caught so easily!
It make me wonder if the companies concerned were so up-front about it, were they unconcerned about possible consequences or did they think that they had done nothing wrong?
So, Epson joins HP in the golden ink deal
I am so happy that I have a laser printer.
All these shenanigans go right under the bridge . . .