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Originally Posted by oompaloompa (Post 884984)

Ebay can have as many records as it likes, it does not mean it is the registered persons real details account. If the lawyer could ask for and discover the owner of bank account from paypal, then I would say different - but that takes alot more legalities,

cell phone call, disposable email and a phone call to 'registered user'....is all they have right now

What I would do is change personal sim in phone so they cannot get back in touch, and if a letter arrives, call up number on letter and with a different voice/accent, be outraged, tell them it does not pertain to you, and tell them never to bother you again or it will be harassment...

..I know it sounds simplistic to deny, but until they make a solid move, why risk revealing anything...you are handing them your a$s on a plate

lawyers they are for later in the day......after all the simple stuff has been tried first......for after they have got a court order to get paypal to reveal bank account and then another court order for the bank to reveal your details!!!!!

Originally Posted by walkingupwards (Post 884998)

I am already past this level, I can't deny anymore as the lawyer already made sure it is me.

Originally Posted by walkingupwards (Post 884975)

Do you think they will accept the supplier info without the invoices?

They won't sue, but the the lawyer could make a few thousands from sending the "Abmahnung" :doh:

Originally Posted by walkingupwards (Post 884480)

I sold generic iPhone charging cables (bought from China) and the problem is I used "Apple" in the title of my listing. The listing got reported by Markmonitor and got pulled down eventually. All of this happend in Sep/2017.

I contacted Markmonitor and asked why they reported the listing, got the usual response and then I did a very f***ed up mistake: I asked for the information of their legal representative in Germany.

2 days ago I got called by their lawyer in Germany and he was kinda nice on the phone, explained why the listing got pulled down and asked me to send him the invoices I got from my supplier. He told me that if I am cooperative I don't have to worry about a lawsuit from Apple because he will tell Apple that I was cooperative with him and as I am in Germany, he suspects nothing would come out of this.

After our phone call we contacted each other through e-mail. This is the e-mail I got from him today:


Dear Mr. XXX,

As I told you on the phone yesterday Apple asked me to take care of this matter now. There is no need to contact MarkMonitor as it is not their decision how to now proceed. I believe I explained to you yesterday your options how to resolve this matter hopefully in an amicable way. But getting back to MarkMonitor will not change anything.

Finally, I believe I explained sufficient clear in our call yesterday and in my subsequent email that we expect as a sign of cooperation that you provide us with your suppliers' invoices. If I do not hear back from you in this respect by next Tuesday, I will advise my client to now pursue further legal actions.

Best regards




I am afraid that if I send him the invoices he would be able to build a case against me and the invoices will be the 1st step in doing that!!

I contacted a lawyer few weeks ago and asked him what to do in case I receive a "Cease and dissest letter", I asked in the form of what he would do in such a case and his reply was:

If it were me I would not pay anything upon receiving such a letter, let Apple sue for the money first. They do that very seldomly



What do you think I should do? Should I send him the invoices or should I ignore him?

Do you think this a scaring tactic to get the invoices or are the threats legit?



P.S: I sold the cables on Ebay.de as I live in Germany.

Originally Posted by Yasav (Post 905068)

Just to make sure, they are differences in how you use word "Apple." For ex.

1) New Cable XYZ (fits Apple) - Brand: Unbranded

2) New Cable XYZ for Apple iPhone/etc - Brand: Unbranded

3) New Apple Cable XYZ - Brand: Apple

Correct me if I am wrong; but titles 1 and 2 shouldn't cause any issues. In my understanding, it's perfectly ok to reference another company or trademark if it's done so for fitment purposes only.

I think also you could have included a disclaimer at the end of the listing saying like

"Products carried by our store are not affiliated with nor endorsed by Apple Inc. Any trademarks mentioned are used for fitment purposes only and belong to their respective owners."

Originally Posted by Yasav (Post 905068)

Just to make sure, they are differences in how you use word "Apple." For ex.

1) New Cable XYZ (fits Apple) - Brand: Unbranded

2) New Cable XYZ for Apple iPhone/etc - Brand: Unbranded

3) New Apple Cable XYZ - Brand: Apple

Correct me if I am wrong; but titles 1 and 2 shouldn't cause any issues. In my understanding, it's perfectly ok to reference another company or trademark if it's done so for fitment purposes only.

I think also you could have included a disclaimer at the end of the listing saying like

"Products carried by our store are not affiliated with nor endorsed by Apple Inc. Any trademarks mentioned are used for fitment purposes only and belong to their respective owners."

Originally Posted by walkingupwards (Post 905092)

You're absolutely right, but here is how it goes with Markmonitor (the company that enforces Apple rights online):

If your listing contains the words "Apple" or "Lighting", your listing will be found by the web scrawler deployed by Markmonitor. Then they will take it down because the cables you're selling infringe on Apple designs. Apple does not just own the brand "Apple", it owns the designs of its products.

So hypothetically speaking, they could sue you even if you don't use the word "Apple" in your listing and even if you put that disclaimer in it.

I used to have a bookmark folder where I saved all listings of my competitors, many of them got taken down as well even though many of them followed your mentioned method.

There is a big seller that has more than one million in positive feedbacks, he has a listing for lightning cables and here is how his title reads:

"USB sync charging cable for iPhone iPad iPod"

His listing is in the top 5 results and selling over 400 sales/day. Business as usual and nobody seems to care. My point is, if you don't have a super conversion rate and use the above mentioned title, you chances of selling are slim to none!


I originally used the word "Apple" in my title because all almost all sellers were doing so and I need to match their wordings in order to appear in search results.

Originally Posted by Gladiator (Post 905103)

Well making replica "compatible" add-ons would go into a patent infringement/grey area. Even Nintendo, who is super friendly to third-parties, got involved in some lawsuits during the Wii era due to the replica nature of the products, even for long standing third party makers.

Originally Posted by walkingupwards (Post 905158)

Correct, Apple would go after such thing only if they have nothing to do. I saw some vendors on Amazon that basically came up with their own brand, made packaging and just put Apple cables inside. So now they're selling replica cables under their own brand and everything is fine.

Maybe I will do that in the future :cheer:

Originally Posted by Yasav (Post 905162)

Yes I see those all the time. Foo-foos being sold under your own brand. AMZN will crack down on that, sooner or later, just a matter of time.

If they catch you again selling those cables, the likelihood of legal ramifications would be higher, they would tell "I told yo a$$ last time to not sell it"

Originally Posted by walkingupwards (Post 905429)

Well I was talking about that with Amazon in mind. Listings like that have been up since 2015 with god knows how many sales they have accumulated so far!

Originally Posted by oompaloompa (Post 908421)

How would I go about getting a seller looked at by apple? what do you need to report and to who exactly....

Originally Posted by oompaloompa (Post 908421)

How would I go about getting a seller looked at by apple? what do you need to report and to who exactly....

Originally Posted by dallis (Post 908679)

Probably because we hate scumbags who sell phake stuff for real prices pretending when it's not real.