MF Doom performing live. Photo Credit: Possan
10 months later, the MF Doom estate is nearing a settlement in its counterfeit merch lawsuit against Temu – a development that suggests a resolution will soon materialize in Twenty One Pilots’ decidedly similar case.
The MF Doom estate fired off its complaint in August 2025, and Twenty One Pilots’ namesake LLC submitted an action of its own the following month. Repped by the same counsel, the plaintiffs touched on a number of overlapping points in their straightforward suits.
At the top level, both lambasted Temu as “one of the most unethical companies operating in today’s global marketplace.” Additionally, each of the filing parties accused the online marketplace of infringing on trademarks through the “knowing and systematic marketing and sale of counterfeit” t-shirts, hats, and more.
Temu promptly fired back and successfully sought dismissal. However, the MF Doom estate and Twenty One Pilots retooled their arguments, still centering on the allegedly infringing merch, in amended complaints.
Most recently, February saw the presiding judge partially grant Temu’s motion to toss the estate’s second amended complaint – albeit while leaving multiple claims standing. Though plenty of back-and-forth (including discovery disputes and a sanctions showdown) followed, the development may have set the stage for a settlement conference.
And in any event, said conference was evidently fruitful; in a joint notice, Temu and the MF Doom estate told the court that they’d “reached a settlement in principle to resolve all claims.”
With a corresponding draft already in the works, assuming this final stretch doesn’t deliver any unforeseen obstacles, the litigants intend to submit a formal dismissal motion during the next 45 days.
As mentioned, logic suggests that Twenty One Pilots and Temu may soon wrap a settlement of their own. (Plus, the parties earlier in June agreed to arbitration.) But at the time of writing, a related notice hadn’t yet hit the docket.
Temu search results also support the idea of an imminent Twenty One Pilots resolution – and provide a bit of possible context about the MF Doom estate’s agreement terms.
In brief, both suits included screenshots showing what appeared to be tons of unauthorized merch available via Temu. Now, searching the platform for “MF Doom” returns a grand total of zero results, compared to just one, a seemingly licensed action figure, for Twenty One Pilots.
Furthermore, presumably unauthorized artist apparel appears to be in short supply on Temu across the board. Searches for “Olivia Rodrigo” and “Bad Bunny” only bring up about two dozen books apiece, for instance – against no item listings whatsoever for “Zara Larsson”.
Put differently, the above-described suits could have ushered in wider changes at Temu. The same cannot be said for a competing Chinese ecommerce platform, where artist t-shirts, blankets, and caps remain widely available.
Interestingly, this availability doesn’t extend to Twenty One Pilots or MF Doom items, which are conspicuously absent from the site (or at least search results).