Competitor becoming "Vero" member and filling in Notice of Infringement Form

[bigbill]

Basically, I have a competitor on EB who really wants to take me down. He is filling in a Notice of Infringement Form for items which he has no selling rights over and sending random Bull**** into ebay such as 1.1 counterfeit products (you cannot even counterfeit this product) to get me MC999 on my listings.

Infact we both have the same factory in China.

I know on EB USA you can send counter notice... there is no such thing on EB UK, i have contact both the "rights owner", who will not reply and also VERO team in UK.

Anyone had a similar experience? Is the only route to go down the legal route?

[rsot]

Originally Posted by Willkeelham

Infact we both have the same factory in China.

IF he knows this too - expect a big fight to go on - wow, small world

[jeffweico]

Well, I disagree with one thing. ANYTHING an be counterfeited. It is just a matter of how much time and money it would take. They are even counterfeiting RAZOR BLADES these days, for god's sake!

In the USA, we can file a counter notice ONLY for alleged copyright infringement. There is NO counter notice procedure if the claim is a trademark violation.

Is the item in question a brand name item, or is it generic?

If it is branded and eBay has accepted your competitor as the owner of the brand, then you might want to forward the real rights owner's information to eBay. You might also want to let the rights owner know (I know you said they have not replied to you) by putting it all in an email if you didn't already do that.

If the item is generic and your competitor has just claimed ownership, you might also want to point that out to eBay. I would include anything I could find to help prove the item is generic.

But the bottom line is that it is eBay's call in either case. You are not the first person this has happened to. You won't be the last. Competition is BRUTAL on eBay and Amazon, ESPECIALLY around the Christmas season, and competitors will pull out every dirty trick they can think of to help eliminate the competition, rather than compete on price.

The good news is, they usually get caught sooner or later and lose their account.

[bigbill]

Good post jeffweico...

I am just going to forget it move on to another account, set up my own UK trademark for this generic item with own branding and start selling again in time for xmas!

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by Willkeelham

Good post jeffweico...

I am just going to forget it move on to another account, set up my own UK trademark for this generic item with own branding and start selling again in time for xmas!

If it is generic, then I would go ahead with a couple of minor modifications...

Take a picture of the item and fill out the EXIF data so that it shows it is yours. Your competitor may not be smart enough to take it out if they grab the photo for their listing.

Also, name your product and attach a UPC or EAN. You can buy a UPC OR EAN that is official for cheap - like under $10.

You could also register as the VERO member, if that is legal in the UK (I am not an attorney and I live in the US) but check with an attorney first.

[bigbill]

Solid advice. Thanks, and I believe it it possible to register as a VERO member in the UK if you own the Trademark for an Item.

[andi1]

Ive had this before with a range of android tablets i was selling comptitor stole the brand from china and registered as it his own got vero registered and bang eliminated all his competiton. Ebay will do nothing if hes registered the rights with the ipo theres nothing you can do either. I took my case to my local mp and there was nothing even she could do to help.

It does seem to be a loophole many un unscrupulous sellers are adopting lastely :(

[newjerseymax]

It seems like a very smart competitor! Now you know what to do to avoid situation in future. Beat them to the punch....

It could hurt the factory in sales. Maybe they can give you a letter that indeed they own the rights. Fight fire with fire... But is the product worth the fight? I have seen these kind of things just get ugly!

[jeffweico]

Be very careful if you do this. You would be opening yourself to a lawsuit by the real rights owner.

[bigbill]

Thanks for feedback guys.

I am setting up my own Trademark for these goods and going to relabel/brand this product.

As Jeffweico says... not worth time/hasstle/money with a going down the legal route

Thanks

[glacier922]

I have been selling this generic xxx stuff for the past few months. It is successful and I do see trolls trying to troll bid me on this. I used to say that this xxx is like the real thing, and I stress that it's not that other product. I've been getting mc999 all thru my accts for this. So I stopped. Now I put just the generic brand with no mention of the other product, and I still got an mc999 for trademark violation! I even put this on a new acct never sold anything on it, generic, never mentioned it was like the name brand stuff and it got pulled this morning!!! Wtf guys??!!

How would you guys deal with this??? It looks like even stealth don't work because they were successful at pulling stuff from my new Accts！!!!

[JamesNorth101]

How would you guys deal with this???

I would find something else to sell generally. The item you are selling seemed marked for VERO.