Listing violation

[egglesdtp]

A week ago, I listed an auction (on a different ID) for an 'Amazing Bullet' food prcessor/blender. It was purchased by my daughter some years ago and never used, and is still in its original box. The item generated a lot of interest - well over 100 views, about a dozen watchers and 5 bids.

This morning I received a Listing policy violation alert: Trademark Violation - Unauthorized Item email from ebay, and they have removed my listing.

The email stated that: "Your listing was removed after the rights owner notified us that your item infringes on their trademark rights".

Ebay's link to "What is trademark infringement?" states that Trademark infringement usually involves using someone's trademark on a good or service in a way that may confuse others about the source or affiliation of the goods or services.

How can my listing confuse anyone about the authenticity of my item? As far as I can work out, you cannot purchase the item from a B&M store - it is currently only available on ebay.uk and Amazon. My photos showed most sides of the original box.

Ebay's email further stated "We urge you to contact the rights owner directly for more information about why they requested the removal of your listing and whether you may relist the item".

I have contacted the rights owner via the email link supplied, but have yet to hear back.

The email also stated the rights owner has created an About Me page that "contains information to help you understand why removal of your listing was requested. For more information about the rights owner, please go to" (link removed) but the link just goes to a User ID Not Found page.

I have two questions - does this mean I cannot sell this item?

Are the people who have already placed bids notified of its withdrawal from sale? And why?

[digital*ghost]

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@egglesdtp wrote:

I have two questions - does this mean I cannot sell this item?

Are the people who have already placed bids notified of its withdrawal from sale? And why?

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It probably has the same kind of restrictions that things like Zumba DVDs do - only authorised resellers can offer them for sale. 

The bidders would have received a notification of the listing's removal, but not told a specific reason why - the emails unfortunately just imply that the listing may have been fraudulent (not that it could have been an authentic item and the trademark owner objected to the item being listed on eBay). 

[5kazam]

I personally think this is an OTT reaction.  It is not as though you listed with '100 available' or anything like that. 

So it effectively means that if someone has made a legitimate purchase at some time, decides they no longer want it after it has sat at the back of a cupboard for years, and would like to recoup some of their original expenditure, (particularly) if it is still got its original packaging, then it can't be sold on eBay.

I wonder how many eBay sellers would come under this 'listing violation'???

[wehavethatau]

How is a seller supposed to know if someone owns the sole rights for a particular item? The idea behind this is ridiculous and it in many cases is impossible for a seller to know or determine.

I recently served a 7 day ban for this. I was told by eBay that I could continue to sell (and thus pay fees) but I couldn't list any new items during my 7 day ban. I had a laugh, put my store on holiday mode and developed a website.

eBay seems to be looking for every avenue possible to drive more and more sellers away. Apple had this we-know-all approach 3 years ago and are now in complete freefall.

[egglesdtp]

So what do I do to sell the item? I can remove the brand from the title and the description but I wouldn't have any photos without the brand being shown somewhere unless I blacked them out. However, I doubt it would get anything like the number of views (or final price) that it had already accrued up until today if I did this.

It will be interesting to see what the 'rights owner' has to say, although I doubt very much they will reply to my email.

I wonder if the same restrictions apply on Gumtree?

[5kazam2]

How is a seller supposed to know if someone owns the sole rights for a particular item?....

My opinion is that once a person has paid money for a product - that person owns the sole rights to that particular item.  

The manufacturer openly sells goods on the market so they can make a profit.  I fail to see what right they think they have to then tell the purchaser what they are not allowed to do in the future with a product the manufacturer no longer owns.

If it was me in OP's situation, I would be telling that manufacturer to give me a 100% refund on my purchase, if they refuse to allow me to sell my property on the secondary market.   I have a major aversion to anyone telling what I can/can't do with something I have bought and paid for.

[digital*ghost]

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@moonlighting00 wrote:

If it was me in OP's situation, I would be telling that manufacturer to give me a 100% refund on my purchase, if they refuse to allow me to sell my property on the secondary market.   I have a major aversion to anyone telling what I can/can't do with something I have bought and paid for.

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Copyright, rights of a trademark owner, and what you can do with your own property are often different issues. An item that is subject to copyright and trademark means the respective owners can have an interest in it after it has been sold, and have the right to protect their interests, which means you can't always do everything you want to with something you have purchased. 

A slightly different, but more more clear cut, example of this sort of thing is people who sell something with content that is subject to a limited use license. Say I design something and sell the instructions for people to make one of their own, and license it for personal use only. They can do whatever they like with the product they make using my instructions, but they can't do whatever they like with the instructions themselves, and would be in breach of copyright if they redistributed them.

Often the problem is when the item is listed as brand new, because as mentioned, the company only allows authorised resellers to sell their product brand new, which in turn means anyone else selling a brand new item is unauthorised. Companies do this to protect their interests and image, and in some cases to protect their customers, as they will not honour warranties on brand new items purchased from unauthorised sellers.

[egglesdtp]

So do you think if I excluded the term 'brand new' from the listing (can't remember if you can choose 'Unused'??) do you think that would satisfy the rights owner?

[digital*ghost]

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@egglesdtp wrote:

So do you think if I excluded the term 'brand new' from the listing (can't remember if you can choose 'Unused'??) do you think that would satisfy the rights owner?

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Without knowing what their specific objection to the listing was, I would personally not risk relisting it on eBay, even without mentioning their brand name etc. Hopefully you can get a reply from them, and they provide some guidelines as to if / how it can be listed.

[5kazam2]

I understand what you are saying.  But if I have paid for an item, as far as I am concerned, the complete ownership of said item has been transferred to me to use, wear, whatever I want.  And I really don't care about TM's, licenses or whatever - if they have taken my money then they have SOLD the item to me with their brand name.  It now seems to me that some of these businesses want it all their own way.  Yeah, we'll take your money, but we still own it.  What a lot of rot.  Maybe when I have finished with whatever, I should send it back for a full refund because it was still theirs, and they were only loaning it to me anyway, according to their trademark, licensing, etc.

However, one thing we don't know is if OP stated in his listing his item was 'brand new'.  eBay's options are limited to 'New' (brand new item unopened in box - or words to that effect) or 'Used'.  So if OP did list his item as 'New', because it had never been used, and they still had the box, he is only listing according the options available from eBay.  I don't think he's done anything different to a lot of other sellers, who list unused, sitting in the back of a cupboard for yonks, items as new.