PR: Large-scale campaign launches against trafficking in counterfeit textbooks on online marketplaces

Cengage, Elsevier, McGraw-Hill Education, and Pearson Education, acting through the Educational Publishers Enforcement Group, launched a substantial, multi-faceted campaign to remove counterfeit textbooks from online marketplaces ahead of the upcoming back-to-school season. The campaign focuses on hundreds of sellers of counterfeit textbooks across multiple online marketplaces.

The sale of counterfeits harms authors, publishers and legitimate retailers, along with the students that buy them.

The anti-counterfeit campaign aims to redress the damages caused by the sale of counterfeits, which negatively impacts the publishers’ ability to invest in new educational materials and business models that help students achieve better outcomes at more affordable price points.

Based on their extensive investigative efforts, EPEG took the following actions late last week:

First, the publishers sent infringement notices to online marketplaces, reporting over 300 sellers of counterfeits. As each marketplace presumably wishes to cultivate a reputation for providing a wide array of legitimate goods, not fake ones, the publishers hope and expect that each marketplace will take swift and appropriate action against the infringers in accordance with their respective policies and the law, including removing infringing listings and sellers. The marketplaces receiving these notices included Amazon, AbeBooks and eBay.

Second, the publishers initiated lawsuits in federal court against 40 alleged sellers of counterfeit textbooks. In the lawsuits, the Publishers asserted copyright and trademark infringement claims against 'John Does', who are anonymous sellers of counterfeits on online marketplaces.

Third, thepPublishers initiated lawsuits against two identified sellers of counterfeit textbooks for copyright and trademark infringement. Plaintiffs filed the first action in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, after learning of the defendant’s activities via seizures by US Customs and Border Protection and surrenders of suspected counterfeits that other commercial distributors sourced from the defendant. Plaintiffs filed the second action in the US District Court for the Eastern District of California, after learning of the defendant’s activities via test purchases from the defendant’s online storefronts and surrenders of suspected counterfeits from other commercial distributors.

Fourth, the publishers sent cease-and-desist letters to dozens of commercial sellers caught selling counterfeits. The facts and circumstances vary, but generally these are parties with whom the publishers believe it may be possible to explore the nature and scope of the infringement, the appropriate corrective action, and the possibility of resolution short of litigation.

These enforcement efforts are part of an ongoing effort by the publishers to ensure the integrity of their products.

"The publishers are committed to cleaning up the marketplace, and enforcing their rights against those responsible for selling counterfeits. Publishers have the right and obligation to protect their copyrights, authors, and students, as well as their brands and reputations," said Matthew Oppenheim of Oppenheim + Zebrak, LLP. "These actions are important to create a level playing field for legitimate businesses. Those that play by the rules by purchasing and selling legitimate products should not face unfair competition from those who deal in counterfeits."

EPEG recently introduced the Anti-Counterfeit Best Practices, which are a set of principles designed to assist distributors in addressing the growing problem of counterfeit textbooks.