(Yicai) Dec. 15 -- Temu and Shein, two Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms known for their low prices, have met again in court, as the former filed another lawsuit against the latter over intellectual property infringements in a move to ultimately secure exclusive suppliers.

Pinduoduo-backed Temu filed a lawsuit to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Dec. 13, claiming that Shein illegally interfered with Temu's business, misused the US law, and infringed Temu's IPs.

In December last year, Shein sued Temu at a district court in Illinois, claiming Temu instructed influencers on social media to defame Shein and misled clients to download its app using false social media accounts. In March, Shein filed another lawsuit against Temu to a North American court for trademark counterfeiting and infringement. In July, Temu sued Shein at the district court in Boston for violating the US antitrust law regarding the garment market.

IPs are the main focus of the two companies' disputes, but considering their responses during the above cases, they are actually competing for suppliers.

Shein worked with many Chinese garment factories, helping them produce faster and at lower costs, while the company achieved rapid overseas expansion by offering cheap products. Temu's launch greatly impacted Shein's business, as the pair adopted the same low-price strategy.

Once Temu entered the market, Shein began to revise its exclusive deals with suppliers to acquire their IPs in the US. The new agreements rule that Shein should be allowed to publish, display, copy, improve, or use suppliers' products and images, as the company would acquire the image, photo, and video rights of suppliers' IPs. Therefore, the suppliers were prohibited from using or displaying the same images Shein had on its site on any other platform.

Shein unlawfully acquired suppliers' IPs via such agreements to stop suppliers from selling similar products on Temu or other retail platforms, Temu thinks.

A source close to Temu claims that Shein offered false statements to copyright registration agencies and made tens of thousands of false and malicious complaints not supported by copyrights against Temu in the US. For example, Shein acquired sellers' accounts on Temu and threatened them to not do business with Temu, the source claimed.

Temu has been plagiarizing Shein's brands on a large scale, constantly unfairly competing with Shein, and attempted to file malicious lawsuits to take revenge and bring shame on Shein, the source close to Shein said, noting that US and UK courts have issued temporary injunctions regarding Shein's lawsuits against Temu to force the latter to stop infringing on Shein.

"Shein will never compromise on such villainous behavior and will actively respond to lawsuits against it and protect its rights and interests by law," the source added.

Editor: Futura Costaglione