Marketplace Solutions Blog

Unauthorized sellers are causing problems for many brands. Most brands, however, are unsure how to stop these sellers and their impermissible sales. Others simply attempt to combat the unauthorized sellers in an ineffective manner. This can be because the “leaks” in their authorized ...

Earlier this year, we looked at the importance of providing notice of restrictions in distributor agreements and seller agreements. When defendants are unaware of the restrictions of sales to resellers in distributor agreements, the tortious interference claims can fail. In the second part of ...

Businesses across many industries want to control product distribution. Among other things, they do not want third parties to engage in product diversion and sell their products below retail prices. However, many businesses are, indeed, finding their goods online at reduced prices. This issue ...

One who purchases a trademarked good may ordinarily resell that product without infringing the trademark owner’s mark. This is what is referred to as the "First Sale Doctrine." This principle--a common defense to trademark infringement claims--only applies to the resale of “genuine” ...

Arbitration has become so popular, brands often include arbitration clauses in authorized seller agreements as a matter of course. However, in the fight to stop unauthorized online sales, these clauses can create a problem when legal action is necessary to pursue an unknown breaching seller. By ...

There are many reasons why people might choose to buy products from unauthorized sellers online. For example, there is the ease of purchasing the product over the internet, especially if the product is only sold through a select number of distributors; the ability to purchase products under the ...

Many brands today are noticing that unauthorized third party sellers are selling large amounts of their products over the internet. Some of these brands are working hard to stop product diversion and the related unauthorized online sales. Others, however, are not -- or they simply do not know ...

Courts can hold parties liable for Trademark Infringement under the federal Lanham Act for something seemingly as trivial as scraping off unique production codes (UPCs). Under the First Sale Doctrine, a purchaser of another's genuine trademarked good can ordinarily resell that product. In other ...

A business pursuing legal recourse against an unauthorized seller will likely find itself negotiating with him or her. Settlement agreements should be fact-specific. Thus, a business should not recycle a standard agreement and use it in every case. However, there are several things businesses ...

Brand owners and manufacturers are not the only ones with something at stake when it comes to online sales. Beyond the businesses themselves, authorized sellers are also concerned about product diversion and unauthorized sales on third-party websites. When companies arrange for their products ...