"Aggressive" Amazon rebuked in Maglula fakes case

A federal judge in the US has shot down an attempt by Amazon to secure a summary judgment in its legal despite over counterfeits of Maglula's products on its retail platform.

Late last year, a US district court ruled that Amazon must submit to an inspection of its inventory by Maglula, which makes magazine loaders for firearms and says knock-off versions of its products – particularly its UpLULA  loader – are widespread on its US site.

That ruling came in a lawsuit that has also claimed that Amazon has acted as a direct seller of the counterfeits, as well as third-party vendors from China that were listing goods on its marketplace.

Amazon sought dismissal of the lawsuit on the grounds that Maglula had not made its case sufficiently strongly, but earlier this week, US district judge Liam O'Grady found that there are " genuine issues of material fact in each of the causes of action, and that summary Judgment is therefore inappropriate."

Moreover, he also said that Amazon's legal team had acted "aggressively – perhaps too aggressively at times" in defending the suit, adding that "the court does not believe even the most persuasive presentation of Amazon's evidence would make one iota of difference to a jury."

Judge O'Grady sent the suit to mediation, and said the two parties should exchange damages positions immediately.

"The evidence of unlawful counterfeiting by these Chinese entities…is overwhelming," said the order. "This is simply not a case where Amazon can avoid liability."