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Dr Martens Sues Temu For Trademark Infringement

By Nithya Bose in Business News, posted April 15, 2024

Dr Martens has sued Temu, a budding Chinese online marketplace, for alleged trademark infringement.

The iconic British footwear company claims Temu used paid Google ads to promote imitation footwear.

Dr Martens claims Temu is targeting keywords directly associated with Dr Martens, such as “Dr. Martens” and “Airwair.”

According to The Times, this allowed Temu to position its counterfeit products more prominently in Google search results than genuine Dr Martens items.

Google’s advertising guidelines prohibit ads that infringe on trademark rights.

However, the policy does not restrict the use of trademarks within keywords for ads.

The company took formal legal steps last week, filing a lawsuit in the High Court.

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This follows a previous lawsuit against the fashion retailer Shein in 2021, where Dr Martens accused Shein of deliberately selling counterfeit products.

In a financial context, PDD Holdings, which owns Temu, reported a significant revenue increase to ¥247 billion (approximately £27 billion) for the year ending December 31.

This nearly doubled from ¥130 billion (£14.2 billion) in 2022, fueled by robust growth in online marketing and transaction services and buoyed by major Chinese sales events such as Singles Day.

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