Posts Tagged ‘need help’

Dear eBay Queen;

I’m hoping you can help me. I was selling jeans on eBay from a famous hip-hop designer. My husband found the source on a business trip to New York. My husband’s friend was also selling them under his eBay ID. I had sold maybe 20 pairs and our friend had maybe sold 50 pairs.  Then one day out of the blue, we both had our auctions pulled.  The reason given was because the Trademark holder claimed they were not the real jeans. Looking them over they seemed just fine. Our friend provided eBay with the receipts, and re-listed the jeans.  He was then suspended from eBay for a while and fought them to get back on the site.

Soon afterward, we both received letters from a lawyer claiming to represent the company, asking for our list of buyers. Our friend hired a lawyer, and sent them the information they requested.  Our friend’s attorney claimed that was all we needed to do. We also sent the same info after they requested it from us. The hip –hop attorney now claims they had an undercover buyer purchase from my friend, and is asking for $7000.00 to settle. I’m bracing myself to hear the same claim.

How can they do this to us? I’d also like to know if they had the right to ask for our buyer’s names like that? We had no idea they were fake, if they were, and purchased them for a legitimate source. We in no way "cheated" them out of that much money. I feel this is so unfair. Do you have any advice for us?

Hip-Hop No More

Dear Hip-Hop;

I should make a disclaimer and tell you I’m not an attorney.  I can only give you my opinion based on my experience with eBay and the VeRO (Verified Rights Ownership) program http://pages.ebay.in/help/confidence/programs-vero.html .  Since this jean company has an attorney that is well versed in Trademark law, I would suggest that you find an attorney who knows, or make sure your attorney knows this area of the law too.  Here’s the U. S. Government website on Trademarks. http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm

Copyright and Trademark infringement are serious offenses in the real and eBay world. There is another eBayer who is experienced in taking on Trademark issues.   Tabberone sells licensed fabrics and gifts. Their website has a lot of information about trademark fights and eBay http://www.tabberone.com/ .

If this were happening to me I would not list the jeans again until I had confirmation from the trademark owner that these jeans were authentic.  I would also consider contacting the person who sold the items to me. I would ask for them to authenticate the jeans.  I completely believe that you were not out to cheat anyone.  Keep in mind that there are lots of fake items to purchase on the Internet. This is eBay’s way of trying to keep those things off of their site.

Dear eBay Queen;

I’ve read about all the new policy changes. Do you know when they take effect? 

John

Dear John;

Here’s a timeline based upon the information provided during the eCommerce Summit Keynote in Washington DC, January 29, 2008. http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200801.shtml#2008-01-29163013

January 17^th- Best Match (eBay new way to search) starts in 5 categories.

February 20^th- New Pricing starts. Free Gallery, Lower insertion fees and higher final value fees.

February- Extended seller protection and repeat Feedback credit starts.

 March- All search defaults to Best Match. Safe Payment program with PayPal starts.

April- PowerSeller fee discounts begin.

May- Feedback changes take effect (no more negative feedback for buyers).

July- PowerSeller criteria changes.

Strange eBay item of the week: eBay item 110220593065 (enter this number in the eBay search box in the top right corner of the eBay homepage.) Wouldn’t it be great if we all could find a high priced collectible like this seller did? Royal Doulton Toby Jug Charlie Chaplin Bolo Hat Sold $3000.00 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330149410179