Advanced Digital Solutions, Inc. (ADSI) faced a trademark infringement suit after allegedly marketing counterfeit Hewlett-Packard products. The company was accused of falsely labeling itself as an HP partner and using the company’s marks to sell various products on Amazon and its own website. The case, filed on Thursday, is being held in the Northern District of California before Judge Nathanael M. Cousins.
The complaint alleged that ADSI said on its website it was “featured Partners” with HP and “other companies, including Samsung, Bluebeam, and Wasp.” The company became a partner with HP in 2009. When HP split with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) in 2015, ADSI was forced to accept new terms in order to renew its partnership status, which it did in 2018. Among other things, ADSI allegedly agreed that it was “not authorized to modify HPE products” and that it would “display HPE’s marks only to promote the sale of HPE Products.”
In July 2018, an investigator hired by HPE received two HP ProCurve Networking transceivers that it had purchased from ADSI’s online marketplace in June. The following month, an HPE engineer “analyzed the two transceivers and determined that they were counterfeit,” though their licenses were genuine. In April 2019, “HPE terminated ADSI as a channel sales partner.” This was not an isolated occurrence, since ADSI allegedly had a history of selling counterfeit products in the United States. The complaint cited a case in which ADSI was found guilty of importing hundreds of counterfeit transceivers and arranging for its employees to “put counterfeit labels on transceivers…so that ADSI could sell those counterfeit products to federal customers.”
As a result of ADSI’s alleged trademark infringement and misleading statements, HP seeks awards of punitive and statutory damages, treble damages, an injunction restraining the company from using the HP marks, and full restitution “including restoration of all property unlawfully taken” from the company. HP is represented by Sideman & Bancroft and Cholakian & Associates.