It has been revealed that the distribution of counterfeit and fake goods, such as parts and automotive accessories infringing on the trademarks of Hyundai Motor and Kia, is rampant on online marketplaces and e-commerce platforms. Consequently, attention is being drawn to the fact that both Hyundai Motor and Kia have recently filed large-scale trademark infringement lawsuits simultaneously in federal court. According to federal court litigation documents confirmed by this newspaper on the 2nd, Hyundai Motor and Kia each filed complaints with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on August 28 against overseas online sellers, seeking to prohibit the sale of counterfeit goods and citing trademark infringement. In the complaints, Hyundai Motor and Kia stated that the defendants distributed large quantities of vehicle parts and accessories via the internet that illegally infringed on representative trademarks registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), including ‘Hyundai,’ ‘Elantra,’ ‘Kia,’ ‘Sportage,’ ‘EV6,’ and ‘EV9,’ without the approval or license of either company. According to the complaint, the defendants elaborately decorated the appearance of their online stores with high-definition graphics and official content to disguise themselves as official outlets or authorized wholesalers of genuine products approved by Hyundai Motor or Kia. Furthermore, to gain search visibility, they employed the tactic of unauthorizedly inserting both companies’ trademarks into store text and meta tags. It was found that the distributors named as defendants used multiple virtual store accounts and fictitious identities interchangeably to conceal their actual identities and the scale of their sales networks. The majority of the defendants are presumed to be organizations based overseas, such as in China, or those that resell counterfeit goods sourced from the same supply chain. Hyundai Motor and Kia pointed out that the distribution of these counterfeit parts and accessories is not merely an infringement of intellectual property rights but causes consumer confusion regarding the origin and quality of the products, thereby inflicting fatal damage to their brand credibility. Hyundai Motor and Kia took particular issue with the possibility that consumers might mistake these online stores for official retailers. According to the complaint, the online stores operated by the defendant companies were designed with elaborate appearances and used content and images related to Hyundai Motor to make them look like online retailers, outlets, or wholesalers authorized by the company. However, Hyundai Motor stated that it never authorized the defendants to use the Hyundai Motor trademark and that none of them are official Hyundai product dealers. Common charges in this lawsuit include trademark infringement under the Lanham Act, the federal trademark law, distribution of counterfeit goods, and false labeling of origin. Hyundai Motor and Kia requested the court to issue temporary, preliminary, and permanent injunctions to immediately halt the production and sale of the illegal products, while also urging the court to order major online marketplace platforms to block the exposure of the stores and advertisements in question. The amount of damages sought is also substantial. Both companies demanded the full return of unjust enrichment by the defendants, along with punitive damages of up to three times the actual amount for willful infringement. In addition, the plaintiffs are strongly requesting the court to order the defendants to bear all litigation costs and statutory damages ranging from a minimum of $1,000 to a maximum of $2 million per instance of trademark forgery, with the total amount expected to reach tens of millions of dollars. Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor America, which filed this lawsuit, and Kia America, headquartered in Fountain Valley, California, and Irvine, California, respectively, oversee operations in the U.S. market.