New Jersey Federal Court Limits Mass Anti-Counterfeiting Suits

The chief judge of New Jersey’s federal district court issued a standing order putting restrictions on lawsuits against massive numbers of often unidentified alleged online counterfeiters.

“This Court is well aware that a proliferation of online counterfeit sales is creating actual and substantial risks for companies possessing valuable, retail-based trademarks, copyrights, and patents,” Judge Renée Marie Bumb wrote in the new standing order issued Thursday. But the growing wave of what are often called “Schedule A” lawsuits “are gradually, and often unusually, modifying the Court’s rules and procedures, creating extraordinary exceptions to same rules and procedures.”

Effective immediately, cases filed ...