Earlier this year, Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), which will require certain small businesses to identify and disclose information about their owners. While the purpose of the law is to help stop money laundering (by inhibiting the abuse of...
Four House members recently co-sponsored proposed legislation, the Shop Safe Act of 2020, that would hold companies like Amazon, eBay and other e-commerce websites liable for counterfeit goods sold on their marketplaces. This comes on the heels of a recent report from...
On January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”) went into effect; however, enforcement does not begin until July 1, 2020. The CCPA is a broad-sweeping, comprehensive consumer privacy law (akin to the GDPR passed by the EU in 2016) that...
Increasingly, manufacturers and brands are implementing a minimum advertised price policy (or a MAP policy) for the resale of their products. In its most basic form, a MAP policy is simple – it is a policy that governs the minimum price at which a reseller may...
The Third Circuit recently ruled that Amazon could be held liable for defective products sold by the third-party sellers on Amazon.com. This is particularly noteworthy because not only does it mark the first court to find Amazon liable for products sold by third-party...
A recent federal court decision serves as another reminder to manufactures and brands of the importance and benefits of reseller and distribution agreements. These types of agreements govern the relationship between a manufacturer of goods and the reseller of...
We live in a global economy, and companies operate in international marketplaces. As such, brands need to be aware of and monitor the increasing prevalence of gray market goods. Gray market goods – sometimes referred to as parallel imports – are genuine goods...
In ADG Concerns, Inc. v. Tsalevich LLC, the Northern District of California found that the defendant’s unauthorized resale of plaintiff ADG Concerns’ products amounted to trademark infringement and unfair competition. The decision is a win for manufacturers...
Have you ever typed a company’s name in a URL only to be taken to a non-functioning website filled entirely with ads or be re-directed to a website for a competitor of the company? This is likely the work of a cybersquatter. Cybersquatting generally refers to...
As Amazon, eBay and other Internet marketplaces continue to dominate the retail industry, manufacturers and distributors face increasing numbers of on-line counterfeit and gray market resellers. These resellers list products at lower price points cutting into...