German artist Michael Moebius, which recently received $120 million in a lawsuit against hundreds of foreign companies, is suing Chinese retailer Shein in a case that could set new precedents for how these companies can be sued in the United States.
Moebius filed a lawsuit against Shein last year, alleging the retailer infringed its copyrights for its artwork, including its best-known series depicting pop culture icons blowing chewing gum. gum. He filed an amended lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Monday seeking to prevent the retailer from avoiding liability through a complex web of businesses.
“I hope this case will set another precedent that multinational corporations must be responsible for all their actions, not just in the area where a lawsuit occurs,” Moebius told Artnet News. “It wouldn’t make sense to have to file 40 to 50 lawsuits for one violation.”
The amended complaint, 10 pages longer than what Moebius first filed, takes a much stronger stance against the controversial retailer, and comes after Shein sought to launch an initial public offering in the United States. Shein has denied IPO rumors.
The court filing shows that Moebius’ lawyers base their arguments on two legal theories that have not been tested together: the delayed discovery rule and the so-called server test.
The statute of limitations for copyright infringement is three years, which is suspended under the delayed discovery rule until the artist becomes aware of the infringement. Moebius learned of Shein’s alleged violation on Jan. 20, 2020, according to the amended document, which could entitle him to cumulative damages.
Simultaneously, attorneys for Moebius sought to establish that the infringement occurred on US-based servers, which may entitle him to recover damages for alleged infringements outside of the United States. related to the domestic offence.
If Moebius succeeds in his lawsuit, other artists could sue in the same way when their copyrights are infringed by large multinational retailers and other companies.
The amended complaint also names a new defendant, Singapore-based company Roadget, which its lawyers say is the intellectual property holding company linked to all of Shein’s international entities – meaning Roadget could be liable for any damages – a blow for the retailer to escalate to a global level.
Trademarks filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office verified by Artnet News show Shein trademarks are registered with Roadget.
“We added Roadget to the complaint because it is Shein’s intellectual property holding company and they have already been sued with Shein,” Moebius told Artnet News.
Roadget joins the Delaware-based Shein Distribution Corporation and at least 100 other unnamed defendants in the lawsuit — all of whom Moebius says are Shein entities.
“Roadget markets and sells products in this judicial district through its website located at shein.com to millions of customers in California and this district, and around the world,” reads the amended complaint.
Lawyers for Moebius said Roadget owned and operated the websites shein.com and us.shein.com, where the company advertised and sold its fraudulent copies of Moebius’ work.
The lawsuit notes that Shein entities operate various domain names for different countries, including shein.co.uk in the UK, de.shein.com in Germany, shein.co.in in India, among others.
“Shein uses different copies of the same website to sell its products in different countries,” Moebius told Artnet News.
“For whatever reason this is being done, it’s hard to get justice all at once, which shouldn’t be the case, especially since we’re talking about a $100 billion company. .”
Michael Moebiussane aladdin (2017). Courtesy of the artist.
Lawyers for Moebius have included a new screenshot of Shein’s alleged copyright infringement on Shein’s website. This seemingly insignificant addition is being used by Moebius attorneys to draw more attention to the technical electronic communications aspects of the case.
The amended complaint alleges that images on Shein’s product pages are hosted on domains such as img.shein.com and img.ltwebstatic.com, which pinged US servers. The product listing pages themselves appeared on a variety of Shein domains around the world, including us.shein.com and shein.co.uk.
The fact that images on Shein’s product pages around the world are stored on US servers is at the heart of Moebius’ new lawsuit, and if proven at trial, could entitle Moebius to damages. international damages.
“Plaintiff’s investigation reveals that without the images stored in the United States via img.shein.com and img.ltwebstatic.com, Shein entities would be unable to display the products they intended to sell, and possibly to sell, in the United States and around the world,” the amended complaint reads.
Additionally, attorneys for Moebius in the original complaint said they believed Shein entities were responsible for allegedly stealing his designs because they “had the right and ability to oversee such infringement” and an interest direct financier in the unlawful conduct.
In the amended complaint, his attorneys added that the defendants also had “the right to terminate any business relationship they have with third parties that they know (or arguably know) are serial infringers.”
The complaint alleges that Shein should not be protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DCMA. While it’s unclear how Shein produced or obtained the allegedly infringing merchandise, its attorneys appear to have included the “third party” provision to ensure the company is held liable for products sourced from outside of Shein. Shein.
Moebius’ lawyers are probably monitoring the progress of another trial filed by artists Krista Perry, Larissa Martinez and Jay Baron in US District Court in Los Angeles.
The artists allege the company violated federal racketeer-influenced and corrupt organization laws, known as RICO, in a different approach to linking Shein’s numerous alleged entities and tying the company to alleged practices. such as sweatshop work.
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