It Usually Starts with a Frozen Account
For most sellers, the first sign is not a court document. It is a notice from Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Walmart, AliExpress, or PayPal saying the account has been restricted and funds are on hold because of a court order. Then comes an email attaching a complaint from a federal court in Chicago, naming you as one of dozens or even hundreds of defendants listed on something called "Schedule A."
If that is where you are right now, two things are true. First, this is a real lawsuit with real deadlines, and ignoring it usually ends with a default judgment and the permanent loss of your frozen funds. Second, defendants who respond intelligently often do far better than the plaintiff's form letters suggest, whether through negotiation or by contesting the case.
This article explains how these cases work from the defendant's side and what your realistic options are. It is general information, not legal advice about your case.
What a Schedule A Case Is
Schedule A litigation is a mass enforcement model developed primarily in the Northern District of Illinois. A brand owner files a single trademark or copyright complaint against a long list of online storefronts, identified by seller alias on a sealed exhibit (the "Schedule A"). Over 4,200 of these cases were filed in the Northern District of Illinois between 2013 and early 2025.
The plaintiff then asks the court, without notice to you, for a temporary restraining order. That order typically freezes marketplace and payment accounts, which is why your money disappeared before you ever heard about the case. Courts allow service by email in these cases, so the message that landed in your inbox or seller portal likely counts as formal service.
We have written about this model from the brand-owner side, including the growing judicial pushback against it, in our article on the Chrome Hearts severance ruling.
The Timeline You Are On
Understanding the sequence helps you see where you can still act:
- Temporary restraining order. Issued without your participation. Under the federal rules a TRO lasts up to 14 days, but courts routinely extend it.
- Preliminary injunction. Usually within weeks, the court converts the TRO into a preliminary injunction that keeps the freeze in place for the life of the case.
- Your response deadline. Once you are served, you generally have 21 days to answer or otherwise respond to the complaint.
- Default judgment. If you do nothing, the plaintiff moves for default judgment. In counterfeiting cases, plaintiffs routinely request statutory damages, which under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(c) can range from $1,000 up to $200,000 per counterfeit mark per type of goods, and up to $2,000,000 where the infringement is willful. The judgment is then collected from your frozen funds, and it does not disappear just because your store does.
Your Realistic Options
Option one: negotiate a settlement. For many sellers, especially where the frozen balance is modest and the allegations have some substance, a negotiated release is the fastest path. Settlements in these cases commonly involve payment of a portion of the frozen funds in exchange for dismissal and, sometimes, release of the account. The plaintiff's opening demand is a negotiating position, not a verdict. Knowing what these cases actually settle for, and what pressure points the plaintiff faces, changes the outcome.
Option two: challenge personal jurisdiction. The plaintiff has to show that you can properly be sued in Illinois. Be careful with this one. In NBA Properties, Inc. v. HANWJH, 46 F.4th 614 (7th Cir. 2022), the Seventh Circuit held that even a single sale shipped to an Illinois address through an interactive storefront can be enough to support jurisdiction. A jurisdiction motion needs real facts behind it, for example evidence that you never sold or shipped the accused product to Illinois. When those facts exist, the motion can end the case against you.
Option three: attack the asset freeze. The freeze is an equitable remedy, and it is supposed to be tied to the relief the plaintiff can actually obtain. Defendants can move to dissolve or reduce a freeze that sweeps in funds with no connection to the accused sales, and courts consider hardship, the actual volume of accused sales, and whether the plaintiff's damages theory supports the amount restrained. Getting a freeze narrowed from an entire account balance down to the revenue tied to a handful of accused listings can transform your negotiating position.
Option four: move to sever for misjoinder. Schedule A plaintiffs bundle unrelated sellers into one case because it is cheap. As we explained in the Chrome Hearts article, Northern District of Illinois judges have repeatedly severed defendants where the plaintiff could not show a real connection among the sellers, and boilerplate allegations about "interrelated networks" of counterfeiters have not held up when tested. Severance forces the plaintiff to decide whether pursuing you individually, with a new filing fee and a separate case, is worth it.
Option five: defend on the merits. Not every accused product is a counterfeit. Sellers of genuine goods, resellers protected by the first sale doctrine, sellers of compatible or generic products accused under overbroad design patents or trademarks, and sellers whose listings simply do not infringe all have substantive defenses. Plaintiffs in mass cases often do minimal pre-filing investigation of each individual defendant, and it shows when a defendant actually contests the allegations.
These options are not mutually exclusive. A motion that exposes weaknesses in the plaintiff's case is often what produces a reasonable settlement.
What to Do Right Now
- Find the case. Identify the court, case number, and judge from the notice you received. The documents will tell you what has already happened and what deadlines apply.
- Preserve your records. Sourcing documents, supplier invoices, authorization or distribution agreements, listing histories, and sales reports. Geographic sales data matters especially: where your orders actually shipped can support a jurisdictional defense and can cap the funds legitimately subject to the freeze.
- Do not move money or open mirror accounts. Attempts to shift funds or relaunch under a new alias tend to be discovered, and they destroy your credibility with the court at exactly the moment you need it.
- Do the math before you decide. Compare the frozen amount, the settlement demand, and the cost of contesting. Sometimes settling quickly is rational. Sometimes the plaintiff's demand is so far above the frozen balance, or the claims so weak, that fighting is clearly the better path. This is a business decision that deserves actual numbers.
- Move quickly. Every option above gets weaker after a default judgment enters. Most of them work best before the preliminary injunction hearing.
Why a Chicago Firm
These cases live in the Northern District of Illinois, the epicenter of Schedule A litigation. Our practice handles intellectual property litigation and software and technology disputes in this district, and we follow the Schedule A docket closely, on both the enforcement and defense sides. That matters, because the judges here have developed distinct approaches to joinder, asset freezes, and default practice in these cases.
If your account has been frozen or you have been named in a Schedule A case, contact The Law Office of Krista Krepp at contact@krepplaw.com or schedule a consultation online.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was my money frozen before I even knew about the lawsuit? The plaintiff obtained a temporary restraining order ex parte, meaning without notice to you. Courts grant these in counterfeiting cases on the theory that advance notice would let defendants move assets beyond reach. The freeze is supposed to be reviewed and justified at the preliminary injunction stage, which is one of your first opportunities to push back.
I am not in the United States. Do I have to respond to a Chicago lawsuit? If you want your frozen funds back or your account restored, as a practical matter yes. The court's order binds the platforms and payment processors holding your money regardless of where you live, and a default judgment will be enforced against those funds. You do not need to travel; counsel can appear for you.
Can I just abandon the account and walk away? You can, and some sellers with small balances do. But the frozen funds will almost certainly be lost to a default judgment, the judgment may exceed the frozen amount, and plaintiffs sometimes enforce judgments against a seller's other or future accounts. Abandonment is a decision to make deliberately, after comparing the numbers, not by default.
How much do these cases settle for? It varies widely with the frozen balance, the strength of the infringement claim, the plaintiff's firm, and how early you engage. Plaintiffs' counsel typically open with a demand tied to your frozen funds or a flat figure. Defendants who engage with counsel and identify weaknesses in the case generally settle on better terms than those who accept the first demand.
What is misjoinder, and how does it help me? Joinder rules limit who can be sued together in one case. Recent Northern District of Illinois decisions have severed Schedule A defendants who were lumped in with unrelated sellers, holding that selling similar products on similar platforms is not enough of a connection. If you are severed, the plaintiff must pursue you in a separate action, which many plaintiffs decline to do.
The products I sold were genuine. Can I still be sued? You can be sued, but genuineness is a strong defense. The first sale doctrine generally protects the resale of authentic goods. These cases are built for defendants who never appear, and a defendant with documentation of authentic sourcing changes the calculus quickly.