A federal judge has granted Temu a preliminary injunction against alleged counterfeiters in an ongoing lawsuit, according to court documents filed Monday.
Earlier this month, the judge granted the fast fashion giant a temporary restraining order against a group of websites whose domain names include “Temu” but are not affiliated with the company. Those sites also contain the Temu trademark, logo and its orange color scheme, per court documents.
The TRO, which was granted Nov. 9, was converted into the preliminary injunction, which will remain in effect for the duration of the case. The order prevents the owners of the domain names from transferring them to another registrar, operating the domain names, and using the Temu trademark, logo or color scheme.
Beyond counterfeiting claims, attorneys for Temu accuse the websites of trademark infringement, false designation of origin, unfair competition, trademark dilution and cybersquatting.
Attorneys further claim the websites’ use of the Temu name and color scheme was used to “dupe people into believing the domain names and their associated websites… are put out or approved by [Temu holding company] Whaleco or are otherwise associated or affiliated with Whaleco. Having been clearly registered and used with a bad faith intent to profit from the Plaintiff’s trademarks, the Unlawful Domain Names must be immediately disabled and transferred to Whaleco to protect the public and the goodwill that Whaleco worked hard to successfully build in its marks and branding.”
The parties responsible for operating the websites are not formally named in the complaint and are instead listed as “John Does 1-10.”
“Temu will continue to fight for the rights of consumers, ensuring their safety against the predatory tactics of scam sites,” a Temu spokesperson said in an email to Fashion Dive. “We will not let up in our efforts to hold scammers who impersonate us and cheat consumers to account.”
Temu was previously involved in an infringement complaint with its fast fashion rival Shein, in which Shein accused Temu of infringing upon its trademarks. That case, along with Temu’s lawsuit against Shein where it accused its rival of violating antitrust laws, were mutually dismissed by both companies last month.
Meanwhile, Temu is facing two class action lawsuits. The first was filed in September and claims the company failed to secure its customers’ personal and financial data, wiretapped the electronic communications of its website visitors, among other claims. The other, filed in November, claims Temu misled consumers about the scope and reach of its data access and collection and intentionally loaded dangerous malware and spyware onto users’ devices.
