GoPro and Amazon slap Chinese accessory counterfeiters with joint lawsuit

GoPro and Amazon have teamed up to sue multiple people and two 'entities' over their alleged counterfeiting of GoPro camera accessories. The joint lawsuit claims the alleged counterfeiters attempted to sell products that infringed GoPro's trademarks through Amazon's online store. This is the latest in a growing number of Amazon lawsuits targeting counterfeiters that use its platform.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, targets Pengyu Building Materials, among others; a total of seven people and two entities are covered by the suit. Amazon names multiple GoPro accessories that were allegedly made without authorization and sold through its platform.

The items include, according to the lawsuit, a floating hand grip called The Handler, a tripod mount, an extension arm, and the GoPro 3-Way grip. Though counterfeit products aren't allowed to be sold through Amazon, that hasn't stopped sellers from trying to pass off infringing items as authentic products.

This issue has become a notorious issue for Amazon, which formed its own Counterfeit Crimes Unit last summer. Amazon has filed other joint lawsuits with companies to go after counterfeiters, including Valentino and Ferragamo, KF Beauty, HanesBrands, YETI, JK Childress, Asmodee, and Dutch Blitz.

Amazon says that only 6-percent of new seller account registrations went on to pass Amazon's verification process last year, allowing them to list and sell items. The company goes on to state that it has received counterfeit complaints from customers that cover less than 0.1-percent of items sold through its online retail store.