Brickell CREELED copyright infringement. HELP

[clearancepriceuk]

Hi all,

Just received a worrying email from

Brickell Ip Group  regarding copyright infringement please can anyone share their experience or guide me what the process to deal this situation or is this a scam or something I should be worried about . Thank You in advance 

[slati_2013]

Google the company and read the Google reviews. You will find your answer there. They are a legitimate company, but it seems many sellers don't think much of their tactics. 

[dbfolks166mt]

     Not a lot of detail but what I believe you are describing is what  is known as a Schedule A Defendant (SAD) sham/scheme probably out of a court in the state of Illinois even though you are in the UK. It is a despicable legal practice by some law firms and lawyers. The following describes the entire SAD scheme. It's things like this that make me ashamed to say I am a US citizen. 

https://columbialawreview.org/content/a-sad-scheme-of-abusive-intellectual-property-litigation/ 

      I am surmising that eBay has also put your funds on hold. I cannot see whether you have any other active listings but if you do you may want to consider ending those to keep anything else from selling and adding to the pot of funds eBay is holding. You should not simply ignore the notification but most likely when you contact the firm they will attempt to extort money from you in a quasi agreement to settle the case. 

[ittybitnot]

@clearancepriceuk 

If it is a SAD dispute as suggested by @dbfolks166mt  in message #3, here are some more discussions about this most despicable practice.  Since they won't go after the "marketplace", they have resulted in extortion against individuals with the full cooperation of the marketplace.  

I always figured if I every had this happen to me I would seriously request my "court date" to appear. They have been known to back off, reduce the extortion fee, or take other such actions.  Those with means may just pay them off to make them go away.   It is all about the money. 

Quite a new industry at play here unlike any court action most of us have ever known to exist.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/sued-for-patent-infringement-need-suggestions-please/m-p/33955...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/USA-Lawsuit-filed-against-me/m-p/33538743#M2158702

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Received-Lawsuit-M999-Warning-for-trademark-infringement-Pleas...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Payments/Your-payouts-are-currently-on-hold-because-your-eBay-account-...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/sued-for-patent-infringement-need-suggestions-please/m-p/33955...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Update-to-sued-for-patent-infrigement-SELLERS-PLEASE-read-gt/m...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/big-trouble-what-i-want-to-do-now/m-p/33604889

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Payments/Ebay-payment-account-is-restricted/m-p/33772074

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/Help-Me-to-fix-MC999-eBay-Payment-Account-is-Restricted/m...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/eBay-Payment-Account-is-Restricted/m-p/32707091

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/SoClean2-Law-Suit-re-trademark-infringement-HELP-Please/td-p/3...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Our-Situation-with-MC999-quot-Your-Payment-account-is-Restrict...

. 

[dbfolks166mt]

I always figured if I every had this happen to me I would seriously request my "court date" to appear. They have been known to back off, reduce the extortion fee, or take other such actions.  Those with means may just pay them off to make them go away.   It is all about the money. 

Quite a new industry at play here unlike any court action most of us have ever known to exist.

     Things like this always remind me of this book I have. 

[ddfsdfodf]

I also got same email today i had around 37$ balance on my ebay, they suspended it and asking ebay message to contact them via private email address,
I'm not a usa citizen and i also don't have funds to pay them or anyone in usa or any country, anyone know what will the outcome at the end, will they take my ebay holding funds and stop this or what will they do to me or my ebay account at the end.

[dbfolks166mt]

I also got same email today i had around 37$ balance on my ebay, they suspended it and asking ebay message to contact them via private email address,
I'm not a usa citizen and i also don't have funds to pay them or anyone in usa or any country, anyone know what will the outcome at the end, will they take my ebay holding funds and stop this or what will they do to me or my ebay account at the end.

     Read some of the responses and links already posted. Nobody here can tell you exactly what the outcome will be but you should not simply ignore the email. 

[ddfsdfodf]

why anyone don't know the outcome, i have seen lots of threads, some opened in early year 2023, so someone should know the outcome,
as i read from some threads outside ebay, they sue 1000 of sellers in one case, at the end they take those accounts frozen money from ebay.

[jenijensong]

Hi:  I use a lot of people's photos to show their sale price compared to mine.   However,  I distort each photo & make it my own, make it funny ...  only leaving less than 20% of the original for viewing.  When you make a joke of someone's copyrighted photo with the proper changes, if you do it correctly,  u can't be sued in my opinion from what I hear.  This has been my experience though I have never used a photo that actually said "copyrighted".  Look into it and c if that can work for you.  As for any infringement case you may be involved in, offering them credit for the photo posted, listing them in your description can help eliminate that tension and perhaps settle the issue.  Hope that helps but please seek legal advice to collaborate any ideas before acting on them, since I am not a patent, copyright,  trademark attorney. 

[ddfsdfodf]

I received that court document they sued 497 ebay accounts. From each account they asking $2 million usd also block the funds anything related to the ebay username or email. If we have $2 million do we really need to sell on ebay cheap appreals for little $2-3 profit margin, few sales per month. Huge fees. I think ebay also should do something to this too. They took all the fees, fees for promoted lisitngs and when we become victims ebay abondened us. And asking to deal with them personally.

[celiwinkle-0]

See this youtube video. https://youtu.be/8yqMwRg4cfg?si=zEGk4WxNBPuMGrFn

There is also a law firm that specializes in fighting Brickell. https://heitnerlegal.com/2023/07/21/best-way-to-defend-against-the-brickell-ip-group-pllc-for-tradem...

[promospec]

I am in the same situation, interestingly enough I had an item listed but never sold anything on ebay.

They have since of course had my PayPal account frozen.

  I am not in the USA and have not been served in my own country.

I had one demand letter for $5000 to settle, on the same day I received another demand letter from a different lawyer in the same firm demanding $2500, I replied and told them that I don't have the money and then they emailed back within minutes saying that "they had consulted with their client" and would now accept $1500

  They seem to be playing a numbers game and since they have done this to hundreds of small sellers it will be interesting to see  how this plays out.

  Personally I feel that everyone should message Elon Musk on X and let him know that this firm is destroying hundreds of small businesses and sending the informationn the the press as well as bloggers and YouTubers may get this case some notice.

  I would be very surprised if Elon Musk even know about it

 * * I have seen two separate tweets by Elon saying that it is OK to use his logo * * 

I found one but cannot find the second one again, does anyone following have both tweets ??

[janet9988]

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@ddfsdfodf wrote:

I received that court document they sued 497 ebay accounts. From each account they asking $2 million usd also block the funds anything related to the ebay username or email. If we have $2 million do we really need to sell on ebay cheap appreals for little $2-3 profit margin, few sales per month. Huge fees. I think ebay also should do something to this too. They took all the fees, fees for promoted lisitngs and when we become victims ebay abondened us. And asking to deal with them personally.

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Ebay is not to blame for the products or pictures YOU chose to list. The company whose item you counterfeited is the victim...that is why they are coming after you.

Edited to add...ebay likes to make money anyway they can.

[tinsoldierunderground]

It's the items you listed and sold that are the issue, ebay merely provided you a platform for sales.

They're not going to defend you in this situation.  

[robbie31415]

A lot of sellers here violate laws and policies and open themselves up to these types of suits.

Sadly some innocent sellers get mistakenly swept up.

It's pretty much the risk of selling. You might get sued if someone believes you are violating the law.

Don't use pictures that aren't yours unless authorized to do so. Typically ma facture pictures are reserved for authorized sellers. The most sellers on eBay are not authorized sellers. Example BestBuy on eBay would most likely be.

Make sure the product you sell is authentic.

Make sure your product that is off brand isn't infringing on any patents.

Make your title clear that it's off brand and not misleading to be mistaken for name brand.

If you developed a product and some factory mass produced copies you'd probably try and shut them down.