Federal Judge Tosses MF Doom Estate’s Temu Trademark Suit — Dismissal Motion Hearing Scheduled in Twenty One Pilots’ Similar Complaint

A federal judge has tossed the MF Doom estate’s Temu trademark infringement suit with leave to amend. Meanwhile, the ecommerce platform is looking to dismiss a similar complaint filed by Twenty One Pilots, with a related hearing now set for March.

Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. just recently granted Temu’s motion to dismiss the MF Doom estate’s four-month-old suit. As we previously reported, the plaintiff called out Whaleco Inc. (which does business as Temu) as “one of the most unethical companies operating in today’s global marketplace.”

That firmly worded description stemmed from (among other things) Temu’s alleged “pattern of flouting the law and attempting to exploit the hard work and creativity of others without consent.”

“Temu manufactured and sold a myriad of items that are counterfeit or blatant copies of Plaintiff’s artwork, products, trademarks, and intellectual property,” the suit elaborated, also including multiple screenshots of allegedly infringing MF Doom merch listings.

From there, Temu returned fire in October with a dismissal motion that placed the alleged trademark infringement blame on the shoulders of “independent third-party sellers.”

Evidently, this argument did the trick; Judge Blumenfeld stressed the seller-marketplace distinction when doing away with the MF Doom estate’s direct infringement claim.

In the judge’s view, the plaintiff “cites no authority holding that price control renders an online marketplace a ‘seller’ liable for direct infringement,” while “the presence of Temu’s name on packaging…does not support an inference that Temu is the seller of any product, let alone the products at issue here.”

Regarding Temu’s alleged relationships with (and possible ownership of) seller accounts, the action “identifies none of the sellers and alleges no facts suggesting that any are owned or controlled by Temu,” Judge Blumenfeld wrote.

When it comes to Temu’s alleged trademark-infringing adverts, the “allegation lacks any specificity—failing even to identify the infringing advertisement(s),” per the court. Though the “plaintiff need not catalog every instance of infringement, it must plead at least some representative acts,” according to the order.

Building on the conclusions, the court described the indirect infringement claims as coming up short for similar reasons.

The MF Doom estate “alleges no facts supporting an inference of joint ownership or control over the infringing products or suggesting that Temu’s role is anything other than a transactional intermediary and fulfiller,” according to the court, which further noted the absence of an allegation concerning Temu’s knowledge of sellers’ purported infringement.

As for the legal battle’s next step, the plaintiff has until December 19th to submit a second amended action. Beyond this, the MF Doom estate “should not expect another opportunity to amend to add allegations,” Judge Blumenfeld spelled out.

These points are certainly worth keeping in mind as Twenty One Pilots’ own Temu trademark dispute unfolds – especially given the overlap between the cases’ dismissal arguments.

“None of the blurry and misleadingly cropped screenshots of the accused product listings identify Temu as the party that made or sold the products,” the platform wrote when moving to dismiss Twenty One Pilots’ complaint. “The complete screenshots of other product listings that TOP does include confirm that third-party sellers were responsible for creating the listings and selling the products.”

As initially highlighted, a dismissal motion hearing is currently slated for March 20th in the Twenty One Pilots v. Temu showdown.