American Eagle Outfitters sues Amazon for allegedly infringing its ‘Aerie’ trademarks

American Eagle Outfitters on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com for knowingly infringing the clothing and accessories retailer’s “Aerie” and “Offline by Aerie” trademarks and sending customers to counterfeit products.

Clothing and accessories retailer American Eagle said in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court that Amazon rejected its application for the right to sell Aerie products.

American Eagle said it wants Aerie to establish its own identity with brand ambassadors like Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman and singer Kelsea Ballerini.

The Pittsburgh-based company said on Aug. 9 that after warning Amazon to stop directing shoppers to fake and “deceptive” products, Amazon was “trying to be more creative with this breach” and used misspellings such as “Aeries” in sponsored ads. and “Aries”.

“AEO protects its brands and cannot allow bad actors like Amazon to confuse and deceive consumers by directing them to inferior counterfeit products and “undoing the goodwill, success, and popularity of Aerie brands,” the complaint said.

Amazon, headquartered in Seattle, did not immediately return requests for comment after market hours.

The lawsuit seeks three times American Eagle’s actual damages, punitive damages and an injunction against further infringement, treble and punitive damages, and other relief.

According to the complaint, Aerie was launched in 2006 and Offline by Aerie was launched in 2020.

American Eagle recently operated nearly 1,500 stores.

Aerie generated 32 percent of the company’s $2.43 billion in net revenue in the six months ending Aug. 3. The Namesake American Eagle brand made up most of the rest.