Someone reselling my product without permission

pearl123

I can't se the problem with the person re-selling, as that's what millions do on ebay. What is the product? 

martindow

It seems to me that you are missing an opportunity here to sell singly as well as in boxes of 20.  This customer reselling shows that there is a market for this.

Can you adjust your pricing so that it will not be worthwhile for others to break up boxes to sell individually and will let you sell single items directly.

Manxman_in_exile

Poshsalt said:

theoretica said:

You only think they are 'probably' splitting them to sell online? I would want to know more about what was happening to them if I could - might benefit your business to know.  Have you looked for listings?

Are they not something that one organisation could use a lot of?  Or some people act as agents to get things not easily available in other countries.

I've seen people using our trademark name on auction sites. People have been taking off our logos to pretend they are us on sites. We have contacted ebay but they are slow to reply, we wonder whether we should contact a trademarks solicitor.

It would be a different story if it was a major retail store, not one person whos bought 20 and made £40 an now is after wholesale price and is asking if we can change the parkaging for amazon lol.

There seems little point in taking the trouble to register a trademark if you can't be bothered to enforce it properly.  Doesn't your firm retain a solicitor for ordinary legal matters who can tell them to desist?  I doubt you need a specialist IP lawyer.

As regards the reselling issue, as others suggest it sounds like there is a bigger market for single products than you are exploiting.  Rethink your pricing

bris

You cant stop someone from selling their own goods. Yes it is there goods once the purchase them from you.

This has been the way of trade since the dawn of time.

Your complaint would only hold up if they were counterfeiting your product.

If they are using your trademark then thats a different story your solicitor would deal with but it would be expensive, very expensive with little chance of recovering the money.

martindow

If people are using your trademark and selling via a website, anecdotally people have been threatened with an approach being made to the company that hosts their website.  When this happens it seems that web hosts are minded to refuse hosting the site which could be crippling for the business.

A cease and desist letter also mentioning the possible need to contact their host or take legal action could have the desired effect.  As has been said, legal action to protect trademarks is only for the very wealthy so that is something of a hollow threat.

Grumpy_chap

It is hard to be certain what is actually happening here.

Is the other seller purchasing multi-packs of 20, splitting them, and selling as singles?  If so, there is not much the OP can do other than reduce the price differential for the multi-pack versus the singles such that the split-resell is not financially viable.  

It is possible that stopping the split-resell would reduce the volume of overall sales accordingly.  People buying from online listing / auction sites may not be aware that the product is available through other channels.  Certainly, if the online sites label the product along the lines of "this product is not available and we don't know when, or if, it will be available again."

Then there is the concern that the split-resell person is purporting to be the OP.  This will hinge on the exact wording used, and the split-resell people may well be careful about that.  They can say "genuine OP's brand thing" but cannot say "authorised distributor for OP's brand".

Finally, is the possibility that the split-resell people are not selling the OP's product at all, but is selling some other product packaged as the OP's product.  From what has been said, that does not seem to be the case.

Some practical things the OP could do to protect the brand is to register companies and buy domain names in variations around the theme, but then just keep dormant, so:
OP's brand Ltd
OP's brand.co.uk
OP's brand.com
OP's brand.biz
OP's brand things Ltd
OP's brand things.co.uk
etc. etc.

JamoLew

Some really good possibilities.

I got the impression that someone was selling the individual items on EBay whilst using the OPs logos.

Without seing the adverts or further clarifications- we cant know for sure

Grumpy_chap

JamoLew said:

I got the impression that someone was selling the individual items on EBay whilst using the OPs logos.

I think that is what I understood to be the case as well.  Plus, Amazon possibly.

I am not an expert in the subject area, but I also understand that using the logos may be permissible:

• OP sells OP-BRAND things.
• Company X buys OP-BRAND things from the OP
• Company X sells things as "genuine OP-BRAND things", which the things are, so that is true and I understand permissible
• Company X could even claim to be something like "independent OP-BRAND specialist"

What Company X cannot do is:

• Claim to be authorised stockist / distributor (or similar) for OP-BRAND
• Sell things made by anyone else but imply they are OP-BRAND things

Here is a link that may be useful to the OP in assessing whether the Company X are using the logo fairly:
https://www.brigittelyons.com/media-logos/

It is difficult to comment more specifically as we have no idea what the things are, what OP-BRAND is, or how Company X is promoting themselves.

kazwookie

What does your trademark paper work actually say??

This might be of interest https://www.gov.uk/using-somebody-elses-intellectual-property

You would need to enforce your trademark.

Easy way is to stop selling to this person

To alter your pricing structure

Agree with this person they can use your trademark for a price££

I suggest you get on to your IP consultant you used when you got your trademark.

bris

The way I wee it is someone is treating the OP as a wholesaler and selling the 20 pack individually.

There is nothing in the 1st post that looks like any kind of infringement.