Someone reselling my product without permission

J_B

When you buy a (for example) six-pack of Coke from the shop, each can has 'multipack, not to be sold separately' written on it.

Could you do that?

unforeseen

That doesn't prevent you splitting and selling separately. It just gives the buyer the heads up that it has been done, and if they only want one at £1 and not twenty at £15 per pack then the per item higher price isn't going to stop them. 

Grumpy_chap

J_B said:

When you buy a (for example) six-pack of Coke from the shop, each can has 'multipack, not to be sold separately' written on it.

They do, but it's not legally binding.

Coca Cola have other means to ensure compliance and incorporate contract clauses to shops and restaurants.

daveyjp

OP could be missing an opprtunity to actually do wholesale.  Revisit the business plan, what is the cost to the business of selling small batches to potentially selling hundreds?  If wholesale isn't profitable is the product too cheap?

molerat

Of course you can stop someone selling your product.  Big brands do it every day.  All you need is deep pockets and an office full of tame lawyers.

Mistral001

Poshsalt said:

Hi,

We have a product that is trademarked that we sell in singles and in packs of 20's.

A person emailed me asking can he have a wholesale price, which we dont offer. We've noticed over the last month they had been buying boxes of 20's and probably spliting them into singles to sell online.

We don't do wholesale and we dont want someone to buy our product from someone else incase there is a problem and we are effected as our company details are on it.

How can I stop this? Should we ban them? Or send a letter for any sales of good without trademark agreement is a infringement?

I would post this on the Ebay sub-forums, as you might be able to block a buyer if ebay will not take action to take down the buyer's reselling listing.

Using a trademark without the permission of the copyright holder is actionable under law, so a solicitor's letter might be a good idea.  The issue of the buyer trying to pass themselves off as yourself when reselling the items, is also actionable even if you do not have a trademark.  It depends how deep your pockets are and how much you want to protect your product.  As has been said trademarking is only going to protect you if you are willing to take action once there is an infringement.  Counterfeiting only occurs here if someone makes a copy of your product and tries to pass it off as one produced by you. 

martindow

Mistral001 said:

Poshsalt said:

Hi,

We have a product that is trademarked that we sell in singles and in packs of 20's.

A person emailed me asking can he have a wholesale price, which we dont offer. We've noticed over the last month they had been buying boxes of 20's and probably spliting them into singles to sell online.

We don't do wholesale and we dont want someone to buy our product from someone else incase there is a problem and we are effected as our company details are on it.

How can I stop this? Should we ban them? Or send a letter for any sales of good without trademark agreement is a infringement?

I would post this on the Ebay sub-forums, as you might be able to block a buyer if ebay will not take action to take down the buyer's reselling listing.

Using a trademark without the permission of the copyright holder is actionable under law, so a solicitor's letter might be a good idea.  The issue of the buyer trying to pass themselves off as yourself when reselling the items, is also actionable even if you do not have a trademark.  It depends how deep your pockets are and how much you want to protect your product.  As has been said trademarking is only going to protect you if you are willing to take action once there is an infringement.  Counterfeiting only occurs here if someone makes a copy of your product and tries to pass it off as one produced by you. 

I don't think this reseller is passing himself off as the OP.  They are reselling a trademarked item that is genuine, just as single items rather than as 20s.  I'm not sure that anything is wrong with this other than pointing out to the OP that there is an opportunity for him to sell to a different market and/or to have a look at his pricing.

None of us are entirely sure as the OP has not commented since 18th March to clarify.

Mistral001

martindow said:

Mistral001 said:

Poshsalt said:

Hi,

We have a product that is trademarked that we sell in singles and in packs of 20's.

A person emailed me asking can he have a wholesale price, which we dont offer. We've noticed over the last month they had been buying boxes of 20's and probably spliting them into singles to sell online.

We don't do wholesale and we dont want someone to buy our product from someone else incase there is a problem and we are effected as our company details are on it.

How can I stop this? Should we ban them? Or send a letter for any sales of good without trademark agreement is a infringement?

I would post this on the Ebay sub-forums, as you might be able to block a buyer if ebay will not take action to take down the buyer's reselling listing.

Using a trademark without the permission of the copyright holder is actionable under law, so a solicitor's letter might be a good idea.  The issue of the buyer trying to pass themselves off as yourself when reselling the items, is also actionable even if you do not have a trademark.  It depends how deep your pockets are and how much you want to protect your product.  As has been said trademarking is only going to protect you if you are willing to take action once there is an infringement.  Counterfeiting only occurs here if someone makes a copy of your product and tries to pass it off as one produced by you. 

I don't think this reseller is passing himself off as the OP.  They are reselling a trademarked item that is genuine, just as single items rather than as 20s.  I'm not sure that anything is wrong with this other than pointing out to the OP that there is an opportunity for him to sell to a different market and/or to have a look at his pricing.

None of us are entirely sure as the OP has not commented since 18th March to clarify.

Martin.  I think what is happening is that the buyer of the OP's packs of 20 and  selling the items singly on Ebay, is giving the impression on their listing that they are the OP's firm.  This could drive trade away from the OP as many people would prefer to buy directly from the manufacturer or brand owner than a reseller.  This could virtually wipe out the OP's sales on Ebay especially if the rogue reseller who is pretending to pass themselves off as the brand owner  is skilled at making his listing appearance very eye-catching and his price competitive.  One for the Ebay forum in my view.  

martindow

Mistral001 said:

Martin.  I think what is happening is that the buyer of the OP's packs of 20 and  selling the items singly on Ebay, is giving the impression on their listing that they are the OP's firm.  This could drive trade away from the OP as many people would prefer to buy directly from the manufacturer or brand owner than a reseller.  This could virtually wipe out the OP's sales on Ebay especially if the rogue reseller who is pretending to pass themselves off as the brand owner  is skilled at making his listing appearance very eye-catching and his price competitive.  One for the Ebay forum in my view.  

Possibly, but none of us is certain.  The OP said that it had the company details in the listing so it could be passing off as you say, but equally it could be information on the packaging analagous to the example someone used in a previous post of selling six packs of Coke as individual tins.  Someone doing this would want to show evidence it is the genuine article but is not pretending to be Coca-Cola.

If the OP knows who is selling on and doesn't like it they can stop supplying this client.  Buying a single item would provide the seller's details if they cannot be seen on the selling page on Ebay.

Ebay can remove items on request providing there is justification, but they seem erratic and there are countless listings that contravene Ebay's policies on the site that they apparently ignore.

As I said, we need the OP to return to clarify the details.

bengalknights

You could always work with them seems like they have found a market for single purchases and you like large package shipping.

Why dont you fulfil the bulk buy and let them deal with the hassle of the single purchases, you make money they make money sounds like a relationship waiting to happen.