Et$y - Notice of legal process seeking information

[sellerstealther]

Unfortunately it happened to me.

I recently received an e-mail from et$y about the legal process seeking information.
I used the trademark of company X - many sellers received the same and their accounts were also suspended at this time.

What do I need to know?

I live in the EU - the suing company is based in the US, as is the law firm that is trying to obtain the information.

I made +/- $50 from their trademark.

If I live outside the US (in the EU) should I ignore it completely?
I don't care about this store, I know that in the past, in such cases, law firms offered a settlement and then reinstated the stores.
The law firm is hspleg@l in Illinois.

[sellerstealther]

I would forget

At the moment, I wrote an e-mail to this law firm asking them to grant me access to the documents they sent to Et$y because it is a sharepoint document and I have no way to check it without access.
Of course, I did not raise any other issues in the e-mail and did not provide any information - only a request for access.

[murdered_by_ebay]

it is a mistake to have any contact with these lawyers

the best way to go is breaking up contact and denying later that you ever had an account on etsy

[sellerstealther]

Do you think I harmed myself by writing this email? I only asked about access to the documents that etsy sent

I didn't bring up or provide any information, just a question

[sellerstealther]

I have this idea:

change email in et$y store + store name

deleting the gmail account from which I sent them an e-mail requesting access to documents (so that in the event of a potential response from their side, the messege could not reach the recipient)

initiating strange activity on the et$y account with proxy + antidetected browser (potential h@king etc)

[murdered_by_ebay]

you need to avoid any contact with them and distance yourself from the etsy account

it is not a criminal investigation but a civil matter , they can not prove you even sell anything on etsy unless you tell them about this yourself

I once had the issue on ebay , got a letter from a lawyer demanding information. I replied I do not sell anything on ebay , don't know anything about it. I never heard back

it is understandable because court expenses are very high , if you deny connection to the seller account the court will ask the lawyers to provide proof and they can't

if you start telling them you were not aware of any wrongdoing bla bla bla , then you will have a problem. keep in mind , it is a game by their rules , if you start playing it you will lose

if it were a criminal investigation it would be different as police have access to a lot of information but lawyers only have what the marketplace can provide and that is almost nothing

[sellerstealther]

I'll do the same

did you receive the letter home?
I live in Europe, very far from the USA, and I doubt they will send any correspondence other than e-mail

[sellerstealther]

I forgot to add that this process appears in lists of legal processes in the USA - such as law360, etc

You can more or less follow its course

I think this is a civil lawsuit

[murdered_by_ebay]

they can get you in europe too and if they contact you at your home address do not ignore them but instead reply you do not know anything about the matter and it is not your account , someone must have used your personal details to open , ask them to find out who that is as you want to know this too

[sellerstealther]

so I shouldn't count on et$y refusing to share my details such as name and address?

[murdered_by_ebay]

etsy has shared everything

[Freakzilla]

How do you know that?

Originally Posted by murdered_by_ebay

etsy has shared everything

[OldTom]

Ignore these 'ambulance chasers'.

They will NOT get you into court, just ignore them and they'll go away.

Countless forums discussing this scenario, I've been there myself, and the advice is categorically to ignore them.

For a fourth time in case I wasn't clear....ignore them.

[sellerstealther]

Originally Posted by OldTom

Ignore these 'ambulance chasers'.

They will NOT get you into court, just ignore them and they'll go away.

Countless forums discussing this scenario, I've been there myself, and the advice is categorically to ignore them.

For a fourth time in case I wasn't clear....ignore them.

ok, I'll do that, have you heard of people contacting them at their home address or only by email?

[agent006140]

Originally Posted by Freakzilla

How do you know that?

Depends on who is asking?
You,me,or the government or government agency

[murdered_by_ebay]

Originally Posted by agent006140

Depends on who is asking?
You,me,or the government or government agency

if the marketplace does not share data they risk being made liable

[murdered_by_ebay]

Originally Posted by sellerstealther

ok, I'll do that, have you heard of people contacting them at their home address or only by email?

emails you can ignore but if you are contacted at home it is better to do what I wrote before

[Freakzilla]

I'm asking as you said Etsy would give the info to the claimant.

Edit sorry not you, Murdered_by_ebay

Originally Posted by agent006140

Depends on who is asking?
You,me,or the government or government agency

[murdered_by_ebay]

all marketplaces provide seller details to copyright owners and to all government agencies incl. tax authorities , they do it to avoid liability so that data protection does not exist if the enquiring party can show legitimate interest

[OldTom]

Originally Posted by murdered_by_ebay

all marketplaces provide seller details to copyright owners and to all government agencies incl. tax authorities , they do it to avoid liability so that data protection does not exist if the enquiring party can show legitimate interest

Isn't that somewhat of a contradiction? In one breath you're (wrongly) saying that ALL marketplaces provide seller details to copyright owners and all government agencies (they don't) and then retract that blanket statement by saying 'if they can show a legitimate interest'.

I simply do not accept that, on the strength of an email, they would release a sellers information - that's why we have data protection laws.

Anyhoo, for @sellerstealther, I can only repeat what I said above, do not respond to anything, email or letter.

These legal firms make their money by threatening sellers, sometime legitimately I accept, to make a settlement with them. That's how they can offer this policing service for free or a modest retainer, to the copyright holders. They only make a living if you fold.

To make a claim they need to quantify the loss to the copyright holder - they can't do that or if they could it would, in your case, be a very small sum and not worth legally pursuing particularly to a non-resident. They make their money by relying on seller panicking and folding.

I've had letters, even had one send mock court papers which must have amounted to about 100 sheets of very serious looking paperwork, the whole gambit of threats. I have ignored them all and nothing ever comes of it.

At the risk of repeating myself, I can only repeat what I said above, do not reply to anything.

[sellerstealther]

Did you receive e-mails from these law firms first or did they send you letters immediately? Recently there has been a lot of talk about being sued for the smiley trademark, I haven't heard of anyone receiving a letter - only an e-mail
I would like to avoid any letter being sent to the address I provided when registering the et$y store

in addition, I did not provide any identification numbers because I am in the EU - as far as I know, in the USA you need to provide an SSN number, and in the UK I don't even know.

the letter to me alone would cost as much as my profit from this company's trademark.

Originally Posted by OldTom

Isn't that somewhat of a contradiction? In one breath you're (wrongly) saying that ALL marketplaces provide seller details to copyright owners and all government agencies (they don't) and then retract that blanket statement by saying 'if they can show a legitimate interest'.

I simply do not accept that, on the strength of an email, they would release a sellers information - that's why we have data protection laws.

Anyhoo, for @sellerstealther, I can only repeat what I said above, do not respond to anything, email or letter.

These legal firms make their money by threatening sellers, sometime legitimately I accept, to make a settlement with them. That's how they can offer this policing service for free or a modest retainer, to the copyright holders. They only make a living if you fold.

To make a claim they need to quantify the loss to the copyright holder - they can't do that or if they could it would, in your case, be a very small sum and not worth legally pursuing particularly to a non-resident. They make their money by relying on seller panicking and folding.

I've had letters, even had one send mock court papers which must have amounted to about 100 sheets of very serious looking paperwork, the whole gambit of threats. I have ignored them all and nothing ever comes of it.

At the risk of repeating myself, I can only repeat what I said above, do not reply to anything.

[degsey69]

I know from experience where both eBay and Amazon were subpoenaed for my sales figures due to being sued over intellectual property rights and both refused to provide them (I was impressed by that and they have the right to do so under case law) so I was ordered by the court to produce them myself.

If you are in the EU I doubt that a small seller will be sued, I would just stop selling that item and ignore the lawyers trying to contact you, give no information to incriminate yourself, this is a civil matter