Understanding eBay’s Policy on Counterfeit Listings
After flicking through eBay you have discovered a listing for your product, however you know that the image looking back at you is not your product. Your product or photography has been directly copied. Take a deep breath. Here's what you need to do...
To deal with IP infringements eBay has its own program called VeRO. This is eBay's Verified Rights Owner Program. This allows rights owners to be able to report any listings that they believe infringe on their IP.
Find out more about VeRO here:
https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/ebay-for-business/verified-rights-owner-program
Step-by-Step Guide to Remove eBay Counterfeit Listings
You will need to send a Notice of Claimed Infringement (NOCI) to vero@ebay.com. The template for this can be found below:
https://ir.ebaystatic.com/pictures/aw/pics/pdf/us/help/community/EN-NOCI.pdf
1. The first task is to complete the contact information. Names, business and contact details. Seal this with a digital signature and current date.
2. The next section is the Allegedly Infringing Material. This requires the Allegedly Infringing Item Number(s) or Product URL(s). For this find the infringing listing and copy the URL from the search bar and paste it into the section.
3. Next up, you need to identify how the listing you have entered infringes on your IP rights and enter a 'Reason Code'. Reason Codes for VeRO are listed at the bottom of your NOCI form. They look like this:
These categorise the difference types of infringement and assigns a code to each. If you need help to establish the difference between the different types of IP infringement, check out our resource here.
4. The next box is for the why. Why does the listing infringe on your IP?
5. Finally, you need to attach a link to your IP document. This is under Registration information and jurisdiction of applicable intellectual property rights. Link to your patent, trademark or design registration. For copyright infringement, link to your original photos/designs on your own listing.
6. Send the completed form to: vero@ebay.com with the title 'IP infringement'.
We would recommend only sending one listing for removal initially as this way you can track it's success. Keep a note of the contents of your email as they can be reused when you submit another request, or modified if your request is rejected. eBay will often send individual listing responses if you have sent a bunch of listings for removal. This makes the process very hard to track.
If you have found one listing that infringes on your IP, the chances are there are more on the platform and possibly on other marketplaces as well. It can be a little overwhelming. If you have found that your email to eBay has been rejected, that you have just discovered far more listings than you can remove yourself, or you want piece of mind that you have cleared down all of the existing infringing listings. Then IP Moat can help.
IP Moat is a platform designed to give you a dashboard to find and remove listings that infringe on your IP from a range of online marketplaces. The best thing is, it's free to find those infringing listings. All you need to do is enter your IP. Sign up for a free online marketplace search here.
