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Temu moves to dismiss MF Doom’s estate’s lawsuit over counterfeit merch, claiming it isn’t responsible for independent sellers on its platform.
E-commerce giant Temu is trying to toss a lawsuit filed by the estate of the late rapper and producer MF Doom over counterfeit merchandise. The company claims it can’t be held responsible for the actions of independent Chinese sellers using its platform.
The estate of MF Doom is managed by Gas Drawls LLC, which filed a suit in August accusing Temu of selling dozens of counterfeit t-shirts, hats, posters, and other merchandise displaying the late rapper’s name and signature mask. Now, attorneys representing Temu have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming the case has a “fundamental problem.”
“[The lawsuit] fails to plead any plausible facts supporting its conclusory allegation that Temu—rather than independent third-party sellers—made, sold, and shipped the allegedly infringing products,” writes attorneys for Temu from the firm Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear.
According to Temu’s attorneys, the company’s business model quite clearly leaves the selling of products to independent third parties in China. They claim that Temu is just the intermediary, and that under intellectual property law, the platform cannot be held directly liable for infringement by third-party sellers.
Further, Temu argues that the MF Doom estate is trying to claim ownership of the deceased artist’s likeness—but that post-mortem rights of publicity do not exist in the United Kingdom, where MF Doom died in 2020.
Temu says it actually “takes intellectual property rights seriously” and has a robust system in place for users to report infringement on the platform. According to Temu, MF Doom’s estate never reported infringement on the platform before resorting to litigation.
“Upon receiving the draft, Temu promptly investigated the matter,” the e-commerce platform’s attorneys write. “Acting out of an abundance of caution and in accordance with its IP policies—not as an admission of merit to Gas Drawls’ claims—Temu removed every listing that it could identify from the poor-quality screenshots provided.”
Temu’s motion asks a judge to dismiss the MF Doom estate’s claims outright, or at the very least, the estate’s “irrelevant and inflammatory” allegations that accuse it of “unethical” business practices.
It’s worth noting that the MF Doom estate’s attorney, Jeff Gluck, who is representing Twenty-One Pilots in a similar lawsuit against Temu, pointed out to Billboard that some infringing merchandise is still available on Temu.
