RZA files multi-million lawsuit against Wu-Tang Clan bootleg merch sellers

RZA has filed a lawsuit against e-commerce stores that are said to selling bootleg Wu-Tang Clan merchandise.

The rapper is hoping to gain all profits made from the fake merch along with damages or instead to be awarded $2 million for “each and every” use of their trademarks.

According to Complex the bootleggers are thought to be running their businesses from China and are producing merch made to seem authentic.

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Marketplaces including Amazon, eBay and AliExpress have been asked to no longer promote the bootleg shops as the businesses involved in the proceedings have been accused of counterfeiting, false designation of origin, and trademark infringement.

Legal documents obtained by Complex read: “Many defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using the Wu-Tang Clan Trademarks without authorization within the content, text, and/or meta tags of their e-commerce stores to attract various search engines crawling the Internet looking for e-commerce stores relevant to consumer searches for Wu-Tang Clan products,” it’s stated.

“Other e-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases omit using the Wu-Tang Clan Trademarks in the item title to evade enforcement efforts while using strategic item titles and descriptions that will trigger their listings when consumers are searching for Wu-Tang Clan products.”

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In 2017, RZA filed a trademark opposition suit against 'Woof-Tang Clan' a Brooklyn-based dog walking company for breach of copyright when the company attempted to trademark the name.

Becky Buckle is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow her on Twitter