Case of the Day: Luxottica Group v. Partnerships and Unincorporated Associations

Despite an escalating trade war between the world’s two largest economies, Diaz, Reus & Targ, LLP Global Managing Partner Michael Diaz, Jr. and Shanghai Office Partner Xingjian “Jeff” Zhao recently secured an unprecedented win for six Chinese e-commerce businesses in a Chicago federal courtroom.  In a watershed case, and the first of its kind to result in an adjudication in favor of any e-commerce defendant, Messrs. Diaz and Zhao successfully defeated a multimillion-dollar federal trademark infringement lawsuit by prevailing on a motion to dismiss for insufficient service of process under the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Matters.  The lawsuit was brought against the six AliExpress merchants (and nine hundred other sellers across an array of e-commerce platforms, including Amazon and Wish) by Luxottica Group S.p.A., the Italian eyewear maker behind the “Ray-Ban” and “Oakley” brands, and its U.S. affiliate.