Can i take ebay to small claims court

Buzby

But this has nothing to do with the USER's dealing with eBay. It is a corporate complaint, and not a competent Small Claim. It is a B2B complaint and will require the EU courts to decide.

Further, as resident in Scotland, I am unable to raise an action in England as I am not domiciled there. EBay's modification is perverse.

wealdroam

Buzby wrote: »

But this has nothing to do with the USER's dealing with eBay. It is a corporate complaint, and not a competent Small Claim. It is a B2B complaint and will require the EU courts to decide.

Further, as resident in Scotland, I am unable to raise an action in England as I am not domiciled there. EBay's modification is perverse.

The OP is a user of Ebay.

The Ebay User Agreement forms the basis of the contract between the User and Ebay.

Ebay clearly say in what are effectively their T&Cs, that the User can bring a court action in any country they wish (you can bring an action in Scotland if you choose).

I agree, there is no 'small claim' here.

Also, as I said earlier, I believe the OP would be unwise to pursue this issue with Ebay through any court without legal advice.

esuhl

leepatston wrote: »

It is a design patent, so purely the shape/design. I have the paperwork for it.
It is registered with the intellectual Preperty Office

The people are in the uk.

I don't know much about this, but isn't a "design patent" an American concept...? In the UK I think the equivalent would be "registered design". Is that what you have -- registered design protection?

leepatston wrote: »

I thought rather than try and get the details of the people who have copied, I would take it up with ebay, as they have a system in place to stop this, but don't really seem to care about me.

From what you've said, it seems that they don't understand how the patent/design is being infringed. Don't take it personally, eBay won't any effort into anything that isn't 100% clear cut. I'd persist in trying to get them to recognise your claim rather than take legal action. (But I'd also consider legal action against the people who are directly infringing your design.)

How certain are you that your design is being infringed? Is it a direct copy (i.e. no one could possibly have come up with the design unless they had seen yours first and copied it)?

bris

Well if Tiffany couldn't beat Ebay in court and they threw millions at it trying, what chance do you think you have?

da_rule

There is a specific intellectual property court. The Intellectual Property Office has information on different enforcement methods: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipenforce/ipenforce-dispute.htm

You need to see a solicitor who specialises in this matter as there may be a need to serve an injunction on eBay to force them to reveal the details of the people who are infringing your IP. However, eBay are only offering a platform for the item to be sold on so you're not going to be able to sue them, although a properly worded letter from a solicitor may make them rethink their stance on still allowing this seller to trade.

steampowered

Buzby wrote: »

But this has nothing to do with the USER's dealing with eBay. It is a corporate complaint, and not a competent Small Claim. It is a B2B complaint and will require the EU courts to decide.

Further, as resident in Scotland, I am unable to raise an action in England as I am not domiciled there. EBay's modification is perverse.

This is not correct. The User Agreement covers all claims made in connection with the user's use of ebay, it doesn't matter whether the claim is consumer or business.

Anyone can use the English courts no matter where they are, including people like you who are based in Scotland. It is enough for the Defendant to be 'domiciled' in England or for there to be a contract allowing the English courts to hear the case. This is how so many international disputes with no connection to the UK are heard in the UK (e.g. most of the disputes between Russian oligarchs).