{"id":7753,"date":"2025-09-10T10:23:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T10:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/twenty-one-pilots-sues-temu-in-lawsuit-over-knockoff-merchandise\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T10:23:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T10:23:51","slug":"twenty-one-pilots-sues-temu-in-lawsuit-over-knockoff-merchandise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/twenty-one-pilots-sues-temu-in-lawsuit-over-knockoff-merchandise\/","title":{"rendered":"Twenty One Pilots Sues Temu in Lawsuit Over Knockoff Merchandise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tTwenty One Pilots is suing the Chinese e-commerce giant Temu over allegations that the \u201cunethical\u201d company is flooding the market with cheap knockoffs of the band\u2019s merchandise.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cStressed Out\u201d duo, set to release its eighth studio album later this week, says the site is a \u201cveritable swamp of infringing and otherwise illegal products,\u201d including many that are \u201cblatant copies\u201d of its merch.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cTemu is widely understood to be one of the most unethical companies operating in today\u2019s global marketplace,\u201d the band\u2019s lawyers wrote in a complaint obtained by Billboard<\/em>. \u201cInstead of policing its products to guard against infringement, it chooses to profit from sales of such products, in disregard of artist and brand rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTemu, which means \u201cTeam Up, Price Down,\u201d is an online marketplace that boomed in 2024 by selling low-priced goods directly to American consumers. But Twenty One Pilots (composed of singer Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun) says many of those goods are fakes that violate U.S. intellectual property.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit includes dozens of photos of t-shirts, mugs, posters and other allegedly counterfeit products. In one, an exact replica of a $35 t-shirt that features the two stars standing back to back, is shown on Temu at the price of just $7.54.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTemu\u2019s pattern of flouting the law and attempting to exploit the hard work and creativity of others without consent is manifest in the claims at issue here,\u201d the band\u2019s lawyers wrote.<\/p>\n

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\n\tArtists are increasingly using legal measures to crack down on counterfeit merch. Last month, Benson Boone and Tate McRae\u2019s merchandise partners each filed separate lawsuits over fake gear sold outside their concerts. Before that, Nirvana, Harry Styles, Rod Wave and many others had filed similar cases.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut such cases can be tricky: In late 2023, Luke Combs accidentally sued a superfan who was selling decorative tumblers and quickly won a $250,000 judgment against her. After the story went viral, he apologized to her and forgave the huge debt.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther artists have chosen to target major online platforms that allegedly facilitate such sales. Monday\u2019s case was filed by the same lawyers who filed a similar case against Temu last month on behalf of the estate of MF Doom, leveling many of the same accusations. That lawsuit remains pending.<\/p>\n

\n\tLike that earlier case, Twenty One Pilots\u2019 new allegations reach well beyond intellectual property by including claims that the company sells the products of forced labor, has aided the Chinese Communist Party and has sold toxic lead products.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe suit also claims Temu has sold goods tied to \u201chomophobia, inciting violence, and violent criminal gang activity,\u201d featuring an image of a shirt purportedly promoting the gang MS-13 and another that reads, \u201cI\u2019m Violently Homophobic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe above are two representative examples of the type of product Temu markets and sells and reflect only the tip of the iceberg,\u201d Twenty One Pilots\u2019 lawsuit says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twenty One Pilots is suing the Chinese e-commerce giant Temu over allegations that the \u201cunethical\u201d company is flooding the market with cheap knockoffs of the band\u2019s merchandise. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3741,303,6759,6280,479,1947,6758],"class_list":["post-7753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-knockoff","tag-lawsuit","tag-merchandise","tag-pilots","tag-sues","tag-temu","tag-twenty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}