Ubisoft and Xbox Are Taking Sellers of Counterfeit Assassin's Creed, Minecraft Merch to Court

ign.com:

Ubisoft and Microsoft appear to be tag-teaming a legal crackdown on people who try to pass off fake versions of Minecraft and Assassin's Creed official merchandise as the real thing.

In a complaint filed on April 19, 2023 in the Illinois Northern District Court, Ubisoft alleges that a number of individuals, corporations, and other companies have been selling unlicensed and counterfeit Assassin's Creed merchandise via a number of different storefronts including iOffer, Wish, Amazon, and the sellers' own storefronts. Per the complaint, Ubisoft says these items are "inferior limitations" that nonetheless use design elements and Assassin's Creed trademarks to deceive consumers into thinking the merchandise is genuine.

Ubisoft alleges the sellers are gaming search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure their listings are at the top of relevant search results, misdirecting consumers away from legitimate products. Additionally, Ubisoft claims the counterfeiters have evaded past attempts to take actions against them by registering new seller accounts under new aliases, maintaining numerous off-shore bank accounts, moving website hosting to servers outside the United States, and shipping products in small quantities to avoid detection by U.S. Customs. While Ubisoft provided a list of sellers it is pursuing to the court, the list is under seal and unavailable at the time of the filing.

Ubisoft is charging the unknown sellers with trademark infringement and counterfeiting, false designation of origin, and violation of Illinois' Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act (which may explain why the suit is being filed in Illinois specifically). The publisher is seeking that the sellers be permanently restrained from doing the same thing in the future, the websites taken down, and their accounts shuttered across a number of online marketplaces. Ubisoft is also seeking to collect all profits from the counterfeit goods or statutory damages up to $2 million for "each and every use of their