Q. Our company wants to litigate against an unauthorized reseller, where do we start?
A. Great news, Vorys eControl loves litigating! Our dedicated Vorys eControl litigation team will start by conducting an assessment of your brand's policies and practices to be sure that the recommendations we made at the outset are being implemented appropriately. Even if your company is not intending to file a lawsuit tomorrow, it is best practice to periodically discuss your eControl program implementation with your eControl enforcement attorney so that the litigation team can act quickly when you decide you're ready.
Q. Which unauthorized reseller should I sue?
A. That depends, and Vorys eControl helps you make that decision. Some brands select to pursue the most disruptive resellers, knowing that the reseller may obtain counsel. Other brands choose to pursue smaller or less disruptive resellers, hoping to put some quick wins on the board to tout to other unauthorized resellers the seriousness of the brand's demands. Either way, we will guide you through the analysis and make our recommendations based on information we can access in our Product Diversion Database, subscription services, and our experience.
Q. Are there any litigation options that are low risk?
A. Yes. We can help you select litigation targets that are likely to not put up a big fight, or we can help you initiate litigation intended to uncover source material before targeting a specific unauthorized reseller directly. Importantly, there's a variety of litigation tactics we can leverage if other enforcement tactics or diversion tactics have left you at a dead-end.
Q. How much will it cost the brand to sue?
A. We have developed a flat fee proposal for several different subsets of litigation. We also can develop a budget based on our best estimate on the various steps in the litigation process. Just as with all facets of the eControl process, we endeavor to provide budget certainty as much as possible.
Q. I've heard that litigation is expensive and distracting to the business, is it worth it?
A. In the right situation, which we will help you evaluate, it is worth it. We have clients who have been able to clean up their channels quickly through a combination of enforcement and targeted litigation, which usually resolves very quickly, limiting the time and resource commitment from the business.
Q. Why should I hire Vorys to help me litigate against an unauthorized reseller?
A. Our eControl litigators have participated in over 300 unauthorized reseller litigations in over 40 jurisdictions; safe to say there's no other firm with more experience than us.
Q. Can you help me with litigation related to protecting my patents or trademarks more broadly?
A. Yes, our team has litigators with specific experience going after bad actors on the Internet who are infringing trademarks and patents, generally. This is in addition to, and different from, the unauthorized reseller litigation, which is based on our eControl program.
Q. Other than suing unauthorized resellers, can you litigation team do anything else to help me?
A. Absolutely! We're here to help with general business disputes, like business partners who don't pay, pay late, or breach their contracts. We have the general litigation skills and specialized eCommerce knowledge to make us incredibly efficient and effective.
We can also help with other common litigation risks we see with our clients, like counterfeits, American with Disabilities Act (ADA) website noncompliance litigation, product liability issues, advertising issues, etc. As a century old, general service law firm, there's very little that we can't do or haven't done when it comes to litigation.
Q. Great, let's get started. Who do I call to start the discussion?
A. Happy to hear it! You can reach out to Martha Motley, one of our leaders of our eControl litigation team at mbmotley@vorys.com.
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