Discovering that your copyrighted work has been used without your permission can be heart wrenching. But don't fear, there is a way you can take back control!
The good news is, you can take action to remove infringing online listings without necessarily resorting to paid intellectual property services. Here’s how you can handle copyright infringement on your own, ensuring your creative rights are respected.
Understanding Your Copyright
Firstly, it’s essential to confirm that you indeed hold copyright to the material in question. Copyright automatically applies to original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression. This includes writings, music, artwork, and other creative content. The most common use of copyrighted materials on online marketplaces is that of photography. It is becoming increasingly common to find the photography of your Etsy 'Bestseller' ending up on sites such as Temu or AliExpress. This often means your product has been copied and is being sold using your original photos. This leads to customer confusion and damage to your brand reputation. Ensuring that it is definitely your original photos that have been used on the infringing listing/listings is the first step in taking action.
Identifying the Infringement
Once you've established your copyright, the next step is to identify the infringing listings. This involves monitoring platforms where your copyrighted work is likely to appear. Begin with online marketplaces like Temu, Amazon, Ebay and AliExpress. Tools like reverse image searches or typing Keywords into the platforms can help you spot unauthorised uses.
Reporting the infringements
All online marketplaces have a process in place to report an infringing listing or listings on your copyright. Unfortunately these differ from marketplace to marketplace so check out our handy guides to online marketplace removals here. Just like the difference in reporting process, each marketplace place also varies in the time it takes to respond and action on your request. Some take a day, others take weeks. However if you get no response or you get your request denied, amend your removal and try again. The important thing here is you need to keep trying!!!
Monitoring the Outcome
After you have submitted a takedown notice, it’s important to monitor the site or platform to ensure that the content is indeed removed. If the infringing listing reappears, you may need to send another request. Unfortunately there is rarely just one infringing listing when you find that your copyright has been infringed on. So make sure you are searching across multiple online marketplaces.
When to Consider Help
If the infringement is widespread you may find yourself spending hours a day sending removal requests and monitoring marketplaces for reappearing listings. Or perhaps you just can't word your submissions in a way that will facilitate their removal. At this point you might want to consider contacting IP Moat.
IP Moat gives you the power to defend your product. It gives a simple to use dashboard that searches online marketplaces in real-time, finding any copied products. The best thing is you can sign up and find potentially infringing listings for FREE. The dashboard then gives you the option to send a removal request to the marketplace for each listing, with just a click of a button. No more lengthy forms or emails. When each listing has been removed, it is updated in your dashboard - giving you back ultimate control of your IP. No slow legal teams needed. Just you and your IP Moat dashboard. Check us out at www.ipmoat.ai. Or send us an email at hello@ipmoat.ai to arrange a chat and a tour.
You don't always need to rely on paid IP protection to handle cases of copyright infringement. Understanding your rights and how to use marketplace removal request tools can empower you to act on your own behalf effectively. However, for more complex situations or ongoing infringement issues, we can help. www.ipmoat.ai
