Dr. Martens takes Temu to court over trademarks

British bootmaker Dr. Martens is suing Temu, claiming that the fast fashion retailer is manipulating Google searches so that lookalike products appear above its own brands.

Dr. Martens filed a high court claim against Temu last week for infringing its trademarks, according to The Times.

The footwear brand claimed that Temu paid Google to advertise boots sold on its site. When users searched keywords including 'Dr. Martens' and 'Airwair' in certain markets, these look-alike boots were presented above Dr. Martens’ originals in search results.

Temu sells discounted iterations of popular clothing from companies such as Adidas, Chanel and more. Analysts from Bernstein in the US found this month that Temu’s versions of popular branded products appeared first in Google searches, such as "Chanel mini evening bag".

Google’s advertising policies state that it does not allow advertisements that infringe trademark rights. But on the contrary, the search giant allows retailers to use trademarks as keywords.

Back in 2021, Dr. Martens also sued fast-fashion giant Shein over a "clear intent to sell counterfeits". Looking at the bigger picture, this comes after a series of Western retailers took action against rapidly growing Chinese rivals.

Earlier this year, for example, Uniqlo sued Shein in Japan over claims it sells copycat versions of its bestselling crossbody bag.

Temu and Shein are expanding rapidly in the West with new business models that see cheap as chips products shipped from Chinese factories directly to consumers’ homes. The low value of products means they slip beneath the £135 threshold at which the UK levies import duties.

Temu’s owner, PDD Holdings, last published its annual sales of £28 billion ($34.9 billion). Thanks to the e-tailer's explosive growth here in the West, this number skyrocketed by 90%.