ebay copyright infringement

miss_lisalou

Has anybody been in the situation where their item on ebay (which is a legitimate, non-fake, brand new and still in it's original box) has been removed and advised that it infringes the owner's trademark?

I listed an item last week, which is not even a particularly well-known product, it already had bids but ebay removed it within 12 hours for the above reason. I was given the email address for the organisation who had requested ebay remove it. After waiting for 3 days, they have responded advising me that they have "chosen to take a very strong stance on my company's presence on internet businesses such as eBay. As such I am quite happy to use the powers that I have to discourage 'bedroom sellers' which I feel could damage my product's image."

Surely this has to be wrong - I purchased the item, have not used it so decide to sell it on. As I see it, it is only the manufacturer who would lose out on a few quid as one sole individual undercuts their prices on ebay (clearly the person who complained about me to have the listing removed).

Whilst waiting for their response, I did post the question on ebay's community forum, which came up with several responses but all varying on where someone stands if they want to sell such an item.

Where do we go from here if Adidas decide they don't want individuals selling on their items, who paid good money for their clothing but no longer need it? Or if Ford suddenly decide they don't want people re-selling their parts etc on ebay?

Has anyone come up against this problem where you cannot list an entire brand because the owner feels so threatened by these "bedroom sellers" (sooo patronising)?

Any advice/previous experience would be great.

DaveAshton

One word: VeRO

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/tp/programs-vero-ov.html

miss_lisalou

I am familiar with Vero, but that doesn't address the issue - firstly, the item is not an illegal copy, but moreover - what if all brands decided they don't want ebay members selling-on their products? Isn't that the point of ebay - to sell on items which you don't need? If there were no branded products on there, ebay would be virtually empty

soolin

miss_lisalou wrote: »

I am familiar with Vero, but that doesn't address the issue - firstly, the item is not an illegal copy, but moreover - what if all brands decided they don't want ebay members selling-on their products? Isn't that the point of ebay - to sell on items which you don't need? If there were no branded products on there, ebay would be virtually empty

VERO is nothing to do with fakes most of the time. It is just companies that do not allow the resale of their goods on ebay.

As you have a warning already which affects your account I would ntotrisk trying to sell this again, just sell it elsewhere as it will probably go in under the radar in a less popular site.

taffy056

have you noticed anyone else selling this product or brand on there? also general question about this, if I bought something in a shop, and says nothing about reselling this product on ebay et al, is it even legal to restrict this? I mean you could just go on your local newspaper to sell, or another website.

DaveAshton

VeRO might be better explained if it was called Verified Reseller ... um... Owner .

Basically, unless you can get permission from them, you're not allowed to resell their products.

soolin

taffy056 wrote: »

have you noticed anyone else selling this product or brand on there? also general question about this, if I bought something in a shop, and says nothing about reselling this product on ebay et al, is it even legal to restrict this? I mean you could just go on your local newspaper to sell, or another website.

Completely immaterial.

If others are selling (and I would lay good money they are) it is just because they haven't bene reported.

It is a grey area whether a company can restrict sales of its products, many do, maybe you will recall the football shirt fiasco with ebay half a dozen years ago? However if ebay choose to accept a companys right to restirct sales then there is very little we can do about it.

As an example ebay UK do not allow pornagraphic items to be sold, yet they are legal to sell in the UK. Compare that to ebay.com which do allow !!!!!! to be sold but only on a special sign in section of their site.

jabdc5

A few years back I had a set of used bubble gum cards of footballers from 1955 pulled by Ebay under Sky Sports VERO!
I emailed Sky Sports and got a bog standard reply about infringing their copyright () they obviously didn't even read my email explaining exactly what I was sellng). I emailed back and pointed out they didn't own the copyright. Didn't make any difference, they wouldn't budge and neither would ebay.

taffy056

I can understand eBay restricting items, I had a listing pulled for selling a fruit machine, it was a 10p jobby, but they said I needed permission from the gaming board .

If I bought an item in a shop, its mine its not the company I bought it from item any longer, so if I wanted to sell it I can imo, unless its an item that has restrictions on it that you were made aware of at the point of sale, for example someone on here is going on about a U2 ticket they are trying to get a refund for, that ticket was in the sellers name, so why is that allowed to be sold when quite clearly the buyer's name is different?

soolin

taffy056 wrote: »

I can understand eBay restricting items, I had a listing pulled for selling a fruit machine, it was a 10p jobby, but they said I needed permission from the gaming board .

If I bought an item in a shop, its mine its not the company I bought it from item any longer, so if I wanted to sell it I can imo, unless its an item that has restrictions on it that you were made aware of at the point of sale, for example someone on here is going on about a U2 ticket they are trying to get a refund for, that ticket was in the sellers name, so why is that allowed to be sold when quite clearly the buyer's name is different?

Tickets are very rarely able to be sold as they are often not transferable. However as per my first post on this thread many things slip through the net or are never reported.

taffy056

But is it legal for a company to restrict you selling something that is yours, and not theirs? concert tickets are an example of stuff that should not be resold on, and I bet they have exclusions specifically in their terms about this, so unless its brought to the attention of someone at the point of sale, isn't that not legal ?