on โ27-03-2015 07:49 PM
I sell invitations on Ebay and luckily I have been so successful that it has become my main source of income.
Yesterday I came across two sellers who have both blatantly ripped off my designs. Place my original next to their rip off and there is no difference - except the quality of the work.
I have sent a cease and desist letter to both. One apologised and removed the offending listing straight away.
The other has not replied and is not removing her listings, in fact she listed another.
Today I did a quick search and have found the seller who refuses to take down the listing has 2 accounts from which she is selling exactly the same items.
Is this even allowed? And if not, how do we report it?
on โ27-03-2015 10:33 PM
If her listing photos and description are identical to you it breaches ebay policy and you could contact ebay trust and safety to lodge a complaint.
If she has copied your invitation designs but listed it differently to you, it would be a copyright issue. You would need to take this up with a lawyer as copyright is not directly an ebay issue, although they will remove items if a breach of copyright is proved.
Sellers are allowed to have seperate ID,s to sell identical items. Many sellers on the boards ( myself included ) have more than one selling ID.
Good luck with this one. It would be very upsetting to find someone had stolen your own designs and was selling them in competition with you.
on โ27-03-2015 10:45 PM
sorry let me get this right ,you are complaining about sellers pinching your designs ,when did you get permision to use batman frozen and other cartoon pictures on your designs , if i am not mistaken they are licence products mmmmmmmmmmm
on โ27-03-2015 10:59 PM
"Sellers are allowed to have seperate ID,s to sell identical items. Many sellers on the boards ( myself included ) have more than one selling ID. "
Sorry chameleon54, that is incorrect
" Restricted
More than one listing of an identical item listed separately by the same seller:
Under another eBay user ID"
While this is the rule, we have found eBay do not enforce it strictly even after reporting it.
on โ27-03-2015 11:03 PM
on โ27-03-2015 11:03 PM
Hmm, interesting observation. If one is allowed to create their own designs using massively franchised commercial characters like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Frozen and Thomas the Tank Engine, then tomorrow I am going to start making my own designs and make a fortune from this! I always thought copyright stood in the way. Seems some other sellers have already got the jump on me! Better get to it!
on โ27-03-2015 11:15 PM
Hi T-shirts-au, Thanks for the heads up.
My understanding was that a seller could not sell identical listings on the same account, but could sell the same products with a different listing ( not copied ) on a seperate account. Are you saying that this directly breaches ebays policies and you have read this in the policies ? Thanks.
on โ27-03-2015 11:26 PM
Found it thanks. You can have identical listings using auctions, but not BINS. This applies to single and multiple selling ID,s. This info comes direct from ebays policies.
on โ27-03-2015 11:43 PM
@transport-posters wrote:Hmm, interesting observation. If one is allowed to create their own designs using massively franchised commercial characters like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Frozen and Thomas the Tank Engine, then tomorrow I am going to start making my own designs and make a fortune from this! I always thought copyright stood in the way. Seems some other sellers have already got the jump on me! Better get to it!
If Disney gets a wiff of it they can go you for copyright. Not something I'd be touching personally! Apparently they are cracking down on fake items.
โ27-03-2015 11:49 PM - edited โ27-03-2015 11:51 PM
Disregard this if your products are lisenced.... but....As the others have said. Anyone with half a brain who is copying your designs already knows you cant report them - youd only bring attention to your own illegal activity. Its no wonder they are ignoring your emails. Ill guess they are in China, where the copyright laws are very different to ours, and what they are doing is probably not illegal (hence why we get so much fake products from China) - they will get away with it. You wont, if someone reports you to the right person.
All those images you are using are protected by the Australian copyright law of 1968, and the international copyright treaties, and the international Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Australia included in the list of signed up countries). Australia is required to act.
Its been in the news here recently that Disney has been cracking down on people using unlisenced merchandise (after the success of Frozen). One Amazon seller that Im aware of has been slapped with a lawsuit and their assets frozen. I know people who have lost their house and gone to jail from selling stuff using unlicensed images on tshirts etc Paddys Markets in Sydney (5 years I think it is).
Its not only criminally illegal (jail time / fines), but you can also personally be sued..
If I were you, id remove all the illegal stuff immediately... or keep very, very quite and pray no one reports you.