Ever searched for your own products?

[GoonerGary]

Spent the day dealing with counterfeit products. Only three sellers today.

Aliexpress, found all my best selling products, a kind Chinese seller who I previously reported, selling my own mug designs for me.

Big online mug seller tying to buy one my products to copy, he's a third time counterfeiter.

And the Amazon seller, selling my own products for me, worked out at over 1 million, 3000 pounds retail value of goods.

I'll maybe do some real work tomorrow.

[webtrekker]

So, do you sell your designs separate from the mugs? I can't see how anyone could copy a design simply from a product shot, or have you uploaded designs full-scale without watermarks? I'm a bit confused over this, as you can probably tell!

I could understand someone copying an idea from someone else's design, but that would then entail them spending valuable time making up their own artwork to replicate yours in Photoshop for to print.

[ASLCreative]

If they are slogan designs, unless you have the slogans thoroughly trademarked as your "business brand" for the category relating to mugs, there is nothing that can be done about people copying the slogans.

If the designs are photographs or artwork (by that I mean not just words) or slogans that incorporate your own artwork in their font or within the design, providing you have created everything yourself then perhaps you could try breach of copyright.

[GoonerGary]

No I put designs onto mugs, the quality of the product shots are usually irrelevant.

The Amazon seller is using my trademark and stolen mug product images to sell mugs...probably using the actual artwork or doing very close imitations.

The Chinese seller doing the same.

[webtrekker]

No I put designs onto mugs, the quality of the product shots are usually irrelevant.

The Amazon seller is using my trademark and stolen mug product images to sell mugs...probably using the actual artwork or doing very close imitations.

The Chinese seller doing the same.

I still can't understand how they could get hold of the actual artwork. Surely that exists only on your own computer?

I do understand, however, people nicking product images. The same has happened to me on ebay before, where a seller appears and starts selling the same goods (not dyesub stuff) and uses all my images and even my titles and descriptions. I had to redo all my product shots with a different (and I think better) design and watermark them.

[GoonerGary]

You didn't have to redo your product shots, you send an infringement report through ebay's vero program. The product descriptions are also your copyright. Invoice the seller for using your images.

[GoonerGary]

Got my test purchase. They were stupid enough to put a return address on the label. They operate several businesses on Amazon and eBay split over various Ltd companies based around First Way
Wembley HA9 postcodes. I've also got a home address they use to buy your product to copy. I tracked down all of their businesses using image searches. It's a big operation, basically piggybacking onto listings, buying your mug or stealing the artwork, then printing them. Really crap quality. This is the third time I've caught them infringing my trademark and copyright.

[webtrekker]

Yeah. I suppose buying mugs and copying the design is a hell of a lot cheaper than using the likes of Shutterstock.

[bubbleimages]

Top investigation work there, mate.

Well done.

[GoonerGary]

Let's see if Trading Standards is interested in their dodgy Minion and Frozen mugs on ebay. I've done their work for them.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Frozen-Charac ... 3397aa7ed9