Chen v. Schedule A - Complaint
Chen v. Schedule A - Complaint
Huawen Chen, )
Plaintiff, )
) Case No. 1:23-cv-xxxx
v. )
)
The Individuals, Partnerships and )
Unincorporated Associations Identified on )
Schedule A, )
Defendants )
Complaint
NOW COMES Huawen Chen (“Plaintiff”), by and through his undersigned counsel, and hereby
brings this Complaint against the Individuals, Partnerships, and Unidentified Associations
1. This action has been filed by Plaintiff to combat e-commerce store operators who trade upon
Plaintiff’s intellectual property by making, using, offering for sale, selling and/or importing
into the United States for subsequent sale or use unauthorized and unlicensed products which
2. Defendants create fully-interactive, commercial Internet stores operating under at least the
“Defendant Online Stores”) that are intentionally designed to appear to be selling genuine
Plaintiff Products, while actually making, using, offering for sale, selling, and/or importing
into the United States for subsequent sale or use Infringing Products to unknowing
consumers.
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3. The Defendant Online Stores share identifiers establishing a logical relationship between
them, suggesting that Defendants’ operation arises out of the same transaction, occurrence, or
4. Defendants attempt to avoid and mitigate liability by operating under one or more e-
commerce stores to conceal both their identities and the full scope and interworking of their
5. Plaintiff has been and continues to be irreparably damaged from the loss of its lawful patent
rights to exclude others from, inter alia, making, using, selling, offering for sale, and
importing its patented designs as a result of Defendants’ actions and seeks injunctive and
monetary relief.
Parties
6. Plaintiff is an individual and Chinese citizen and is the assignee of all rights in and to the
Plaintiff Design.
7. Defendants are individuals and business entities who, upon information and belief, reside
redistribute products from the same or similar sources in those locations. Defendants conduct
business throughout the United States, including within the State of Illinois and this Judicial
District, through the operation of the fully interactive Defendant Online Stores which operate
on commercial online marketplaces. Each Defendant targets the United States, including
Illinois and this Judicial District, and has offered to sell, and, on information and belief, has
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sold and continues to sell Infringing Products to consumers within the United States,
8. On information and belief, Defendants either individually or jointly, operate the Defendant
Online Stores. Tactics used by Defendants to conceal their identities and the full scope of
their operation make it virtually impossible for Plaintiff to learn Defendants’ true identities
and the exact interworking of their network. If Defendants provide additional credible
information regarding their identities, Plaintiff will take appropriate steps to amend the
Complaint.
9. This Court has subject matter jurisdiction over Plaintiff’s claims pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§
1331, 1338 (for claims arising under the U.S. Patent Act).
10. Venue is proper in this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1391, and this Court may properly
exercise personal jurisdiction over Defendants since each of the Defendants directly targets
business activities toward consumers in the United States, including Illinois and this Judicial
District. Defendants reach out to do business with residents of Illinois and this Judicial
through which residents of Illinois and this Judicial District can purchase and/or have
purchased products being offered and sold featuring Plaintiff’s patented design. Each
Defendant has targeted sales from residents of Illinois and this Judicial District by setting up
and operating one or more Defendant Online Store that accepts payment in U.S. dollars and
offers shipping to addresses within Illinois and this Judicial District, and, on information and
belief, each Defendant has offered to sell and sold products featuring Plaintiff’s patented
designs to residents of Illinois. Each Defendant has committed and is committing tortious
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acts in Illinois and this Judicial District, is engaging in interstate commerce, and has
Plaintiff’s Business
11. Plaintiff is engaged in the design, distribution, marketing, offering for sale, and sale of
various industrial designs and consumer products since 2019, (the “Plaintiff Products”)
12. The Plaintiff Products are distributed and sold to consumers throughout the United States,
13. Plaintiff Products are known for their distinctive patented design. This design is broadly
recognized by consumers. Products tailored after this design (herein referred to as the
“Plaintiff Design”) are associated with the quality and innovation that the public has come to
14. Plaintiff is the lawful assignee of all right, title, and interest in and to the Plaintiff Design.
Attached hereto as Exhibit 1 is a true and correct copy of the United States Patent for the
Plaintiff Design.
15. Plaintiff has identified numerous fully interactive, ecommerce stores, including the
Defendant Online Stores, which are or recently were offering for sale and/or selling
Infringing Products to consumers in this judicial district and throughout the United States.
16. Marketplaces like eBay, Walmart, and Amazon, among others, allow merchants to quickly
“set up shop” and flood the market with unauthorized goods which displace actual sales
17. It has been estimated that e-commerce intellectual property infringement costs merchants in
the U.S. alone nearly $41 billion1 with Department of Homeland Security seizures of
infringing goods increasing more than 10-fold between 2000 and 2018 2 and a street value of
18. Infringing and pirated products account for billions in economic losses, resulting in tens of
thousands of lost jobs for legitimate businesses and broader economic losses, including lost
tax revenue.
19. Third party service providers like those used by Defendants do not adequately subject new
“routinely use false or inaccurate names and addresses when registering with these e-
commerce platforms.” 4
20. DHS has observed that “at least some e-commerce platforms, little identifying information is
necessary for [an infringer] to begin selling” and recommending that “[s]ignificantly
enhanced vetting of third-party sellers” is necessary. Infringers hedge against the risk of
being caught and having their websites taken down from an e-commerce platform by
1
The National Bureau of Asian Research, The Report of the Commission on the Theft of American
Intellectual Property, at 9, Pub. The Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property 2017,
available at http://www.ipcommission.org/report/IP_Commission_Report_Update_2017.pdf.
2
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Combating Trafficking in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods
Report to the President of the United States, January 24, 2020.
3
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Trade, FY 2022 Fact Sheet Intellectual Property Rights,
available at https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2023-
Mar/IPR%20Fact%20Sheet%20FY2022%20Final%20Draft%20%28508%29%20%28004%29%20%282
%29.pdf
4
Daniel C.K. Chow, Alibaba, Amazon, and Counterfeiting in the Age of the Internet, 40 NW. J. INT’L L.
& BUS. 157, 186 (2020).
5
Combating Trafficking in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods Report to the President of the United States, at
p. 22.
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21. Since platforms generally do not require a seller on a third-party marketplace to identify the
underlying business entity, infringers can have many different profiles that can appear
22. The success of Plaintiff’s sales of the Plaintiff Products has resulted in substantial infringing
activity and other attempts to misappropriate Plaintiff’s proprietary rights. Plaintiff has
policed the use of the Plaintiff Design and has identified many online product listings on
marketplaces such as eBay, Walmart and Amazon, and other Internet locations offering for
sale and, on information and belief, selling products featuring the Plaintiff Design throughout
23. Defendants enable and facilitate the sales of their Infringing Products by setting up and
operating commercial, fully interactive, Defendant Online Stores, offering shipping to the
United States, including Illinois, accepting payment in U.S. dollars and, on information and
belief, offering to sell or selling Infringing Products to residents of Illinois and this judicial
district.
24. Defendants collectively employ and benefit from substantially similar advertising and
marketing strategies. For example, Defendants facilitate sales by designing the Defendant
Online Stores so that they appear to unknowing consumers to be authorized online retailers,
outlet stores, or wholesalers. The Defendant Online Stores appear sophisticated and accept
payment in U.S. dollars via credit cards, Alipay, Amazon Pay, Western Union and/or PayPal.
The Defendant Online Stores often include content and images which make it very difficult
for consumers to distinguish such stores from those of an authorized retailer. Plaintiff has
6
Id., at p. 39.
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not licensed or authorized Defendants to use the Plaintiff Design, and on information and
belief none of the Defendants are authorized retailers of genuine Plaintiff Products.
25. On information and belief, Defendants engaged in fraudulent conduct when registering the
their respective ecommerce platforms. On information and belief, certain Defendants have
anonymously registered and maintained the Defendant Online Stores to prevent discovery of
26. Defendants take pains to conceal their identities from the public, almost invariably using
meaningless store names and addresses which do not identify Defendants. Defendants may
operate several stores simultaneously using fictitious identities such as those listed in
Schedule A, as well as other fictitious names and addresses. Moreover, infringers like
Defendants will often register or acquire new store accounts under new fictitious names
when they receive notice that one or more stores have been subject to law suit which allows
them to avoid enforcement efforts and continue offering for sale and selling Infringing
Products. The use of these store registration schemes is one of many common tactics used by
the Defendants to conceal their identities and the full scope and interworking of their
27. Despite Defendants operating under multiple fictitious names, the Defendant Online Stores
bear numerous similarities, such as templates with common design elements that
intentionally omit any contact information or other information for identifying Defendants or
other stores they operate or use. The Defendant Online Stores include other notable common
features, such as use of the same registration patterns, accepted payment methods, check-out
similarities in price and quantities, the same incorrect grammar and misspellings, and/or the
28. Infringers like Defendants will typically ship infringing products in small quantities via
international mail to mitigate detection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Further,
they will typically operate multiple credit card merchant accounts or use layers of payment
gateways to forestall their cashflow being interrupted due to trademark enforcement efforts.
On information and belief, Defendants utilize offshore bank accounts and routinely move
funds from U.S.-based merchant accounts (e.g., within China) outside the jurisdiction of this
Court.
29. On information and belief, Defendants are in constant communication with each other and
regularly participate in QQ.com and WeChat chat rooms and through websites such as
30. On information and belief, Defendants maintain offshore bank accounts and regularly move
funds from their financial accounts to offshore bank accounts outside the jurisdiction of this
Court and will do so to avoid payment of any monetary judgment awarded to Plaintiff by this
Court.
31. On information and belief, Defendants are an interrelated group of infringers working in
active concert to knowingly and willfully manufacture, import, distribute, offer for sale, and
knowingly and willfully offered for sale, sold, and/or imported into the United States for
subsequent resale or use products that infringe directly and/or indirectly the Plaintiff
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Design. Each Defendant Online Store offers shipping to the United States, including Illinois
and this Judicial District, and on information and belief, each Defendant has offered to sell or
sold Infringing Products into the United States and Illinois, including this Judicial District,
32. Defendants’ infringement of the Plaintiff Design in the making, using, offering for sale,
selling, and/or importing into the United States for subsequent sale or use of the Infringing
33. Defendants’ infringement of the Plaintiff Design in connection with the making, using,
offering for sale, selling, and/or importing into the United States for subsequent sale or use of
the Infringing Products, including the making, using, offering for sale, selling, and/or
importing into the United States for subsequent sale or use of Infringing Products into
34. Plaintiff repeats and realleges the allegations of Paragraphs 1 - 33 as if fully set forth herein.
35. Defendants are making, using, offering for sale, selling, and/or importing into the United
States for subsequent sale or use Infringing Products that infringe directly and/or indirectly
36. Defendants have infringed Plaintiff Design through the aforesaid acts and will continue to do
so unless enjoined by this Court. Defendants’ wrongful conduct has caused Plaintiff to suffer
irreparable harm resulting from the loss of its lawful patent rights to exclude others from
making, using, selling, offering for sale, and importing the patented invention. Plaintiff is
37. Plaintiff is entitled to recover damages adequate to compensate for the infringement,
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including Defendants’ profits pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 289. Plaintiff is entitled to recover any
confederates, and all persons acting for, with, by, through, under or in active concert with
a. making, using, offering for sale, selling, and/or importing into the United States for
subsequent sale or use any products not authorized by Plaintiff and that include any
Design;
b. aiding, abetting, contributing to, or otherwise assisting anyone in infringing upon the
any other device for the purpose of circumventing or otherwise avoiding the
B. Entry of an Order that, upon Plaintiff’s request, those with notice of the injunction, including,
without limitation, any online marketplace platforms such as Amazon, Wish, eBay, and
Walmart (collectively, the “Third Party Providers”) shall disable and cease displaying any
advertisements used by or associated with Defendants in connection with the sale of goods
C. That Plaintiff be awarded such damages as it shall prove at trial against Defendants that are
adequate to compensate Plaintiff for Defendants’ infringement of the Plaintiff Design, but in
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no event less than a reasonable royalty for the use made of the inventions by the Defendants,
D. That the amount of damages awarded to Plaintiff to compensate it for infringement of the
Plaintiff Design be increased by three times the amount thereof, as provided by 35 U.S.C. §
284;
E. In the alternative, that Plaintiff be awarded all profits realized by Defendants from their
F. That Plaintiff be awarded its reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs; and
G. Award any and all other relief that this Court deems just and proper.
Respectfully,
/s/Carla Carter
Carla Carter
Michael Davis
Davis & Carter LLC
53 W. Jackson Blvd., Ste. 1560
Chicago, IL 60604
T: (312) 600-5485
[email protected]
[email protected]
Counsel for Plaintiff
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Huawen Chen, )
Plaintiff, )
) Case No. 1:23-cv-xxxx
v. )
)
The Individuals, Partnerships and )
Unincorporated Associations Identified on )
Schedule A, )
Defendants )
Schedule A
uxiangongsi
Store
Exhibit 1
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