Got a question that you may or may not be able to answer. My wife got me a case for my new 80gb Ipod for Christmas. It turns out the case is a knockoff of Iskin's Evo3 and a pretty crappy one at that. We were nice and asked for our money back and they said they'd give it back as we'd obviously gotten "a wrong version." (Wrong - it's clearly a bad knockoff and the Iskin site has pointers of how to determine the real deal from good fakes. This isn't even a good fake - the website on the back of the case points to "iskin.ch," a website that doesn't even exist.) Anyway, we let several days go by and no refund. We sent another email, still polite, and give it another couple of days. Yesterday, with no refund given, I tell her that that's it, go to Amazon and do the A-to-Z Guarantee thing and get her money back, and I fired off a pissed off email to tell them that we'd been very nice and gave them the benefit of the doubt, etc., then I went and left a review on the Amazon page that explained that the product they sell is a cheap knockoff of the real thing and pointed out exactly what was wrong about it in comparison to the real thing (which I now own thanks to Apple's incredibly fast shipping.) Well, that sure did it - we got an email that said they'd refunded our money and then shortly after that they sent another email threatening us with legal action if we didn't remove the review from the Amazon page. I think this is laughable - a company selling illegal copies of Iskin cases, complete with the official logos and such, is going to try and sue me because I called them on it in a public forum? But just to make sure, do I have anything to actually worry about? I can't imagine they'd bother spending that much money on little ol' me, but I guess dumber things have happened. But is there really any legal standing for them to sue?

I'm not actually a lawyer yet, nor an expert on defamation law, but I think it might depend on how much editorializing you did in your review. If you just set out the facts, you're probably fine. If you drew any conclusions about the company being con artists, etc., you might have to have actually been right. But if you ARE right, then they have nothing to gain from suing you, since true statements are not defamation.

No lawyer, but I'm gonna give my opinion anyway. There's no way they could possibly do anything to you. Customer feedback is there for a reason. They're just trying to scare you cuz they're some shady motherfuckers.

Here's what I said:


The last couple of sentences might fit what you were saying, Haq, since I did point fingers at them. I was trying to make it clear that the real Iskin is good and what this company in particular sells is inferior. It's pretty hard to point out a knockoff from the real thing without saying who's selling what in this kind of situation since Amazon doesn't actually sell the product themselves.

let'em bring it. sounds like fun.

Tell them to shove it. They are commiting fraud. The gall...

why not add an addendum to your review saying how they're now trying to sue you, but only after the refund was sent and the review was up?

Cause that's all true, and points out just how damn shady they are.

i just got a 60 gb pod (refurbed on apple)... very cheap price too.

How much $$ are we talking about for one of these things?

i am also a lawyer in training but i doubt you have much to worry about. if i'm remembering my civil procedure right, even if they did try to sue you, it would almost definitely have to be in a state court, and if they aren't in your state, they'll have a hell of a time getting jurisdiction over you. but seeing what you actually wrote, they don't have a leg to stand on anyway.

I disagree strongly re: jurisdiction. First, the transaction occurred partly in MoS's state, since he was the purchaser. Second, he posted his review to the Internet, so it's not a stretch to infer harm to the company in their jurisdiction.

But all told, I would think that the only leg they'd have to stand on with regard to defamation is to claim that you falsely claimed that all of their covers were fakes when you only knew of one. But to get by on that, they'd have to prove that all of their other covers were legit, which seems doubtful.

Their fake covers are $27 with $10 shipping - that's an awful lot of shipping for something that weighs a few ounces. It ended up costing the same amount shipped as it did for the real thing (which cost $8 more) from Apple's online store (because our local store was sold out.)

And to answer the other questions, I did alert Amazon about their harassment, and then let this company know that I let Amazon know. I'm hoping to see some lawyers and cops and process-servers on my doorstep in days for this. I'm sure all of this is worth it for $25. What's great is that after I posted my review on Amazon, someone else posted a review saying that they too got a fake from this place! I wonder if they got a threatening email from CoverCase.com?

Alert CoverCase.com too!

right, but i was speaking more in the sense of tracking him down and serving him, the hassle and money involved versus what they actually would have a shot of recovering (aren't there still a few oddball states that don't allow service by mail?) plus, wouldn't there have to be a certain amount in controversy to get it out of small claims court (i know the amount varies from state to state, but i'm not sure a small claims court can exercise jurisdiction over residents of another state)? this is making me have bad final exam flashbacks...

I still find it hard to believe that a judge is going to award anything to these people when I have the knockoff case they sold me and the real thing to compare. It's kind of hard to claim any kind of damages when you're actually selling counterfeit material, right?

Isn't "customer feedback" and "review" a statement of opinion by definition? I don't see where the company has any recourse. Also, if they knowingly sold the knock-off, then they're guilty of fraud, no? The idiom they taught is in u-grad biz law is that you can't run into court with dirty hands.

I'm not sure about service of process issues, but punitive damages are available for libel, and I don't think it would be a stretch as a preliminary matter for a company alleging libel to seek > $1,500 - $10,000 in punitive damages.