Hi,

I have a small shop on ebay selling printed Hen t-shirts, babygrows, mugs etc but nothing big but slowly growing with great feedback.

Since may this year I have been selling a 2 t-shirt set for newly weds with a design I made of my own after looking at reference material online. But my design was a fresh font and shape and wording. Also at the top of ebay searches which was something I had worked hard for.

Now in September I suddenly get these listings removed. Another t-shirt company has claimed copyright violation. I checked the design and it is similar but I have different wording and shapes it just looks too different to accept.

The company pointed out their design was registered. I managed to search online and find it but it said registered 10 September 2017, about a week before I was reported. I have been selling my design from may 2017. It also look like the their t-shirt is a new listing. I am suspicious I am being pushed out by a slightly bigger company. I emailed the company as recommended and they replied with the registered number and to not relist my it-shirts. I have since checked them out and emailed the above and asked when they started selling their deisgn but no reply as yet.

Can anyone see that this may be corrupt.

Thank You

can you link both designs please.

Doesn't matter, the other Co. identified a sales opportunity and trademarked their design before you, so a Cease & Desist letter is reasonable. You can contest in Court if you wish.

With the risk of a pending Court case e-bay are just protecting themselves, though I would expect both designs to be temp delisted.

That's not quite correct. If you can prove that you have been selling that exact design since May and they registered later then you own the intellectual property of that design, you don't need to register it to own it.

Have a read up on intellectual property and go from there.

As said eBay are correctly covering themselves, so you would need to get it sorted with the other company first, then update eBay on the outcome.

Difficulty is proving it, unless you go to court. Perhaps this other company have been selling their design elsewhere than ebay ?

I say court, because it might be difficult to research when/where this company have been selling the design and if they were taken to court, then they might have to disclose. It is whether it is worth the cost of pursuing.

I wonder whether there is option to challenge the design registration in a way other than court. Is there a mediation process available ?

If the OP can find the company who registered the design for them, then they could possibly challenge them as they should have carried out due diligence before arranging the registration to be processed.

Ebay will always side with a large company that accuses a seller of copyright violation.

You need to keep listing and respond to every communication where your listings are taken down.

Ultimately it is a computer making a decision, not a person so you will spend quite a lot of time banging your head against a brick wall.

As your design predates theirs and formal registration is not compulsory you should report all of their listings that breach your intellectual property rights.

Ultimately it is down to who can afford to enforce

so if you can afford a lawyer get them to write a nasty letter to the other company

and copy it to ebay

and let them know that you are looking at taking the matter further etc

when you have a letter

get on to ebay live chat to get an address to send the notice as it is unlikely you will be able to find one by just navigating the site.

Also go to the ebay sellers help forum and ask people, someone will know.

Your problem also affects people selling second hand items where the copyright for the name is held by a compnay that has signed up to the Ebay protection scheme.