eBay removed my listing due to copyright infringement

Hi,

I've recently opened up an eBay store and have found a product that seems to be selling really well. I have been selling this product for a month and just received my second shipment from China yesterday.

eBay sent me an email today to say that it has been removed because someone has reported me as infringing copyright and my listing violates intellectual property rights. eBay gave the website address for the company that reported me; it sells the same product under their name and says Copyright 2009, patent pending. My product is the same as theirs but is provided by a different brand.

If there is no patent on it yet, does that mean that no one is allowed to manufacture a similar product yet? The company that sells the ones I purchased has them for sale on their website with their name on it. Where do I go from here? I have 100 of them sitting around that I'm not allowed to list now.

Any advice appreciated, thanks

Hi carina097,

We are sorry to hear about your situation. In my understanding, once your item gets removed at eBay, you will also be receiving an email notification from them that a VeRO (Verified Owner's Rights) participant has reported your listing and is requesting for it to be removed. Before eBay removes any listing, the rights owners must provide them information ensuring them that they, as sellers reporting the product listing, are authorized to do so. This also allows eBay to correctly identify the specific item to be removed.

The eBay message will provide you with the rights owner's email address or website, and then you are advised to contact this seller directly for clarification about why your product listing infringes their intellectual property rights.

Since you have questions about patent and branding and on how you could be infringing on their rights, the best thing to do would be to contact this VeRO participant, and proceed from there. If you can also share with us what product it was, we could help find more information in this line.

Let us know how you get on. Take care.

Hi, I can relate to your situation as the same thing happened with me today, with a electronic product we sell on eBay under further investigation. It seems that one word in the naming of the product is copyrighted by some obscure company located in the Virgin Islands. If your product does not have a logo on it, you could relist it with out using a name just a description of the product.

Thanks for the replies.

I have already emailed them for more information but am yet to hear back. What's more annoying is, there are other sellers on eBay still listing the same thing. They are stick on car headlight eyelashes. The person that lodged the complaint has a registered trademark name "carlashes" but my description doesn't have that in it, there is the word car and lashes but they are separated by other words.

If I'm doing the wrong thing, I'm more than happy to advise my supplier and get a refund if I can't legally sell them but the fact that other people are selling it makes me wonder if they are just trying to bump me off because my price was very competitive. If I relist them, I run the risk of eBay suspending my account if I get reported again.

Thanks Irene, any help would be appreciated.

This is a very interesting situation actually!

eBay will usually shoot first and well, not even try to ask questions later. In this case, looks like these guys have filed a report, eBay have simply acted on that report (as they usually do), but from what you write, I would think that you would have a very good chance of actually getting this one over turned.

The first thing you need to do is establish good open communication with eBay, by phone if at all possible. Emails will drag on and drag on, but once you have someone's ear, it's surprising just how quickly things can be resolved.

The bad news, getting someone's ear is the hard part lol.

I would be chasing this up hard with them, I thing you've just been caught up in a big sweep that thee guys have done and no one at eBay has even taken a close look at your situation yet.

Write it off, sell them at a flea market or somewhere other than eBay and find another product.

Companies who make trivial, overpriced fashion accessories have the budget to sit around and pick fights over any perceived slight on their trademark. eBay will not help you in any way, and what on earth are you going to do to get the CarLashes people to clear it? Nothing. All they have to do sit on the case, be slow to respond, etc. There's no statute of limitations on the inquiry, and as far as eBay is concerned it's a done deal. Your only recourse is expensive and pointless, and you still may lose (after all, eBay is not legally required to accept your listing in any event, and even if you get it all straightened out they might still simply can the listing if you relist.) Write it off, sell the stuff somewhere else, find a new product.


Frank

Try selling them on Yardsllr.com, great place!

John