Item wrongfully removed as Counterfeit

[printchecks]

This is amazing

Woke up this morning to a take-down notice for one of our listings as Counterfeit.

Here is the unbelievable part. WE are the brand owners.

we are in over 12000 retail outlets, as well as every online marketplace.  #1 selling software in its category on all platforms.

But somehow, we are selling  counterfeit on ebay?

I thought it was a spam message at first, but its real...

Of course there is no way to actually call them, sent them a message lets see how that plays out.

[pikabo-icu]

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@printchecks wrote:

Register as Vero?  I didnt know there was a registration.

We have filed Vero incidents before for sellers that WERE selling counterfeit copies of our software.

never in a million years did i think WE would be accused of counterfeit!.

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Well perhaps I am misunderstanding it then.

I thought the rights holder had to register to inform eBay they were the legal owner but I might be misunderstanding that.

I don't know how eBay would know who is the owner without some notification though.. 

[iamalwaysright]

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@printchecks wrote:

Here is the unbelievable part. WE are the brand owners.

we are in over 12000 retail outlets, as well as every online marketplace.  #1 selling software in its category on all platforms.

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Did you receive authorization from yourself to list this item on ebay?

[1tuna]

trademark owners cant just register with vero

the way you become a member of vero is to file a NOCI against whoever is using your copyrighted logo or phrase on ebay

I payed my NY lawyer to assist me with my trademarks.  registering a trademark with the USPTO can be done cheaply and it still takes almost a year.

the USPTO is the only place to get an american trademark

they have the final say on approval

many trademarks will show the contact info for the lawyer who set it up

you can look up many trademarks on google and find out who owns them

keep on ebaying

[lacemaker3]

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@printchecks wrote:

Register as Vero?  I didnt know there was a registration.

We have filed Vero incidents before for sellers that WERE selling counterfeit copies of our software.

never in a million years did i think WE would be accused of counterfeit!.

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There isn't really a registration process, but after you have filed your first notice, then you are on record as being the Intellectual Property Rights Owner for that product, and you (your account) is supposed to be the only one that is allowed to submit VeRO notices for that product.

I have no idea what product was involved - presumably it was software - the only way this makes any sense to me, is I think another software developer may have filed the VeRO notice because they think your software is infringing on their IP rights.

This doesn't seem to be the correct or appropriate process for that kind of infringement, but I don't know. I have a bunch of patents, but the company I work for owns the IP rights. It may be that this approach was the path of least resistance for the other software developer. Just the easiest way to do something about what they saw as infringement.

In your situation, I think you need to file a counter notice. That way, the other company will have to go to the courts if they  want to pursue it, and do it properly. Here's more information:

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing-and-marketing/verified-rights-owner-program.html#m22_tb...

[popblox]

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@tools* wrote:

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@popblox wrote:

Send a message to eBay for Business on Facebook at the below link and they should be able to take care of you - include your name, eBay account email address, and zip code (you can also attach photos).

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/

If you don't have a Facebook account, create one. 

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I've found that eBay for Business on Facebook doesn't respond to questions. However, eBay on Facebook  (https://www.facebook.com/eBay) does respond promptly, even though they're rarely helpful.

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Really? They've always responded when I've asked a question, as recent as Monday - I guess it just depends on what the question is.

[printchecks]

no it was not a vero takedown.

all i can figure it was a customer saying its not original?

[printchecks · Accepted solution]

ok this has been resolved.

ebayforbusiness on facebook got back to me and re-instated the listing and removed the defect.

Apparently the problem was with the "Brand" field, it was listed as "unbranded", and one of their bots must have picked it up.

I didnt realize it, but we use shopify for our websites and it maintains the ebay listings automatically.

The problem came in because shopify does not pass "brand", in fact shopify doesnt seem to even have that field anywhere in the edit products, so they list on ebay as "unbranded"

so if any brand owners are doing the same, be sure to manually edit your listings and put in your brand.

[downunder-61]

The problem came in because shopify does not pass "brand", in fact shopify doesnt seem to even have that field anywhere in the edit products, so they list on ebay as "unbranded"

In Shopify I use Vendor as brand and C&P into the 'Brand' for eBay's csv.

I am in Australia, but assume it would work on any SF to eBay site

[printchecks]

i added it as a sales channel.

shopify rolled it out last year?  where you can add ebay as an actual sales channel. just hit the + sign on the left bar in admin, and you can activate it.

this way its all integrated, on when you edit a product you can check off ebay as a channel and it takes care of the rest.

It works pretty good, except for brand apparently.

[albertabrightalberta]

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@1tuna wrote:

trademark owners cant just register with vero

the way you become a member of vero is to file a NOCI against whoever is using your copyrighted logo or phrase on ebay

I payed my NY lawyer to assist me with my trademarks.  registering a trademark with the USPTO can be done cheaply and it still takes almost a year.

the USPTO is the only place to get an american trademark

they have the final say on approval

many trademarks will show the contact info for the lawyer who set it up

you can look up many trademarks on google and find out who owns them

keep on ebaying

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One doesn't need a formal patent or trademark in order to apply for VeRO. Vero is intended to protect the rights owner.