Selling products, which infringe the intellectual property rights (trademark or copyrights), is prohibited on Joom and is considered as platform rules violation. In particular, if a merchant sells such products in breach of Joom’s policies, he may face the risks of civil lawsuit against him and may receive a TRO. If several accounts belong to the same legal entity, all the accounts will be affected by the TRO.

What is a TRO?

A temporary restraining order (TRO) is a provisional remedy in the form of an order (decision) issued by a judge before the trial that forces or prevents an action for a specified time frame, for example to prohibit further illegal actions. During the trial cases that involve trademark infringement, a TRO can halt patent, copyright, or trademark infringement in the short term. 

What to do if you received a TRO?

If a TRO is issued against you, Joom will have to comply with such measures. In particular, Joom will have to freeze payouts to the merchant’s account (legal entity). In most cases, Joom freezes all the payouts, however the court might request to freeze the specific amount. 

By receiving a TRO, you are temporarily restrained from manufacturing, importing, advertising, promoting, offering to sell, selling, distributing, or transferring any products bearing the Plaintiffs’ Marks, or any confusingly similar trademarks. You must immediately discontinue the use of the Plaintiffs’ Marks, or any confusingly similar trademarks. 

If you fail to file any response or opposition within the TRO requirements by the deadline stated in the TRO papers, according to the court’s request, all the frozen payouts will be transferred to the Plaintiff’s account without further notice. 

How to prevent receiving a TRO?

• Make sure the products you uploaded to the platform don’t infringe any IP rights.
• If you sell branded products and the brand belongs to you, please authorize the brand.

Please pay attention to the list of brands which took legal actions against Joom merchants during the past year: