Ebay: Keep Calm & Carry On Copyright violation!!

pitkin2020

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/t-find-number?detailsrequested=C&trademark=E9455619 appears he does have trademark, so on that basis I suggest you all get out there and trademark someones work that has expired and just sit back taking royalties whilst not actually having created, designed or even marketed the idea.

darrenforster99

eBay are right idiots when it comes to upholding copyright law anyway. They stop random things just because someone has a go at them.

They don't inspect the item clearly as to whether it is infringing copyright law or anything, just damage people's credibility on eBay. One of these day's though they're going to get their backsides kicked for doing it wrongly.

I remember once my sister asked me to sell a dress for her from some top designer on eBay. She'd bought it from the designers actual shop, and eBay withdrew the auction claiming it was in breach of copyright law because it wasn't from that designer, despite disputing it and even having receipts from the designer for the dress eBay still wouldn't let us sell it.

Instead she ended up giving it to a charity shop because eBay have the monopoly on auctions, she did try listing it on eBid, whilst that site isn't as strict when it comes to possible copyright infringements it doesn't have anywhere near the amount of buyers though.

Btw interesting point here - can you actually re-copyright anything with an expired copyright on it then? I wonder if Cliff would notice if I copyrighted some of his pre-1960's songs - hey didn't some of The Beatles stuff come out pre-1960?

gauly

I'm not an expert but I do know copyright and trademarks are very different - but most people here seem to think the phrase has been "recopyrighted" which is not possible. Copyrights expire, as they did on this poster. Therefore anyone could reproduce it before it was trademarked, including the crown picture (presuming that isn't trademarked by the British government). Trademarks are names or logos used to identify a company and do not expire (as long as you continue to re-register them).

This company is trading under the name "Keep Calm and Carry On" - that is their company name and is now trademarked. They can stop anyone using this phrase on any product in categories registered by their company (which presumably include posters) because they can claim that it is being passed off as manufactured by them (in the same way I can't make a watch and write Rolex on it).

Obviously you can trademark common words and phrases, eg. Orange or Apple or I Can't Believe it's not Butter. You can make a poster and write "apple" on it, but not a laptop because that is one of their registered categories. Two companies can even have the same name as long as they work in different areas. I remember that there was another earlier company called Apple who produced music and were trademarked in that area - when Apple computers registered it was a condition of their trademark that they couldn't produce music. When they wanted to make a little beeping musical noise for their laptops they weren't sure if that was allowed so it was named "sosumi" (so sue me).

Personally, I don't think this trademark should be allowed. I don't believe they want this phrase as a name for their company, so much as to stop other manufacturers making previously legitimate copies of a government poster now in the public domain - I'm not sure that is a legitimate use of trademarking.

RFW

darrenforster99 wrote: »

eBay are right idiots when it comes to upholding copyright law anyway. They stop random things just because someone has a go at them.

They don't inspect the item clearly as to whether it is infringing copyright law or anything, just damage people's credibility on eBay. One of these day's though they're going to get their backsides kicked for doing it wrongly.

They're more likely to get their fingers burnt by supporting the seller and keeping the listing live, as they have in the past, notably in France with a cosmetics company.

Oliver14

darrenforster99 wrote: »

I remember once my sister asked me to sell a dress for her from some top designer on eBay. She'd bought it from the designers actual shop, and eBay withdrew the auction claiming it was in breach of copyright law because it wasn't from that designer, despite disputing it and even having receipts from the designer for the dress eBay still wouldn't let us sell it.

The thing is ebay do not have a finite number of staff to check everything. If they employed enough staff to check all this items the fees would be so high to make ebay unworkable. All ebay can do is what they do and err on the side of caution which is what they normally do.

Sportsandfitness

It does seem they have the trademark which is odd as it seems to be public domain
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ohim?ohimnum=E9455619

pitkin2020

Sportsandfitness wrote: »

It does seem they have the trademark which is odd as it seems to be public domain
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ohim?ohimnum=E9455619

I put that in post #32. I think I should looking at other trademarks that are going to expire soon and then revive them and live off the royalties lol

nikki1520

Best they get themselves down to matalan, past times, next and dunelm mill then- just a selection of the shops with a myriad of keep calm merchandise this weekend!

RFW

pitkin2020 wrote: »

I put that in post #32. I think I should looking at other trademarks that are going to expire soon and then revive them and live off the royalties lol

It's done a fair amount. A friend of mine trademarked a brand name of an old forgotten collectable item, the company went out of business in the late 60s. He hasn't actually earnt any money out of it yet though!

StaffsSW

Bumping this up, as it seems a few people have received notices from the chancer who has registered a "Community Trademark", but that is different to copyright - http://www.t-shirtforums.com/graphics-design-help/t100728.html

Seems that a lot of people are taking legal advice on the matter, and that Mike Coop is trying his luck, and unfortunately has the obstinance of ebay on his side - at the moment at least.