I am posting this here, not sure where the best place is, so this will have to work. Last Friday a bunch of my listings got pulled and I got a letter from Etsy saying I was violating Pandora's Trademark, etc, etc.
Most people don't know their rights, don't have money for legal help, and I am fortunate enough to have the ability to speak with an attorney whenever I need to. So, here's the deal. You are "infringing" when you use the Trademarked name of ANY company in your shop title, section title or tags. You may, however, use the name in the description, the purpose being relevant information, as in "fits", "works with", "compatible with". I was advised to not compare my product by saying "comparable to" or use "style" or any wording that may in any way confuse any moron into thinking they are purchasing a trademarked product. All that being said, onto the good stuff. First, you have the right to have your own copies of any C&D (Cease & Desist) letters that where filed with Etsy(or any other web host) and as a matter of record, you should request they send those to you. On that form, the entity that filed MUST be clearly identified, and ALL contact information given. You have the right to contact that entity, using ANY method they gave and request proof of authenticity that they are acting on behalf of the Trademark they represent. THIS is IMPORTANT!!! People scam, all the time. AND DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, send them your merchandise. That is another HUGE scam. The ONLY way they can request merchandise would be if said merchandise HAS THEIR TRADEMARK OR LOGO on it. And even then, you will KNOW by that point that you are dealing with a legitimate entity because the only time goods can be seized is when people are dealing in counterfeits. I need to add at this point, their is a BIG difference between a resembling item, and a counterfeit. Just because one company makes a "horse" bead, doesn't mean that no other company can make a horse, even a horse that looks almost identical. More fun facts: Pandora uses an organization called REACT,
http://www.react.org/ in their fight against this terrible "threat". Please note, this organization charges a small flat fee to become a member. Not spending much of their budget on fighting this, are they? The person in this organization that hunts down offenders is Slavika Dimovska at
internet.eu@snbreact.org . On the C&D I requested, there was a phone number. I personally chose to look up the country code and time zone and call her at 4 am her time(I'm an asshole, lol) Funny, she answered. This tells me that React farms this out to home based personnel. How professional. She spoke very little english, but I already knew she didn't because anything that wasn't copied and pasted on the C&D and POA she sent me was totally gramaticaly incorrect and fucked up. Again, how very shoddy for a company as large as Pandora to spend so little in the way of "protection" for their ultra amazing TM. Next important factoid I'd like to offer. There is a ton of information on the web regarding this issue. Something to know is that a company is bound to protect their trademmark, or it can be challenged and LOST. The proof that they don't is a VERY GOOD DEFENSE should they ever take you to court. My point being, scour the internet for your favorite LEGITIMATE infringer, you must copy the LINK and send it in an email to this organization, and let them know you will continue to check back to see if said infringement is removed and that DUE DILIGENCE is being used to protect said Trademark against possible loss. This has been my favorite tactic. I am keeping them busy with all the Chinese resellers that are back on Etsy selling 3.99 beads, and with the people in The Netherlands(their country of origin, that seem to go completely untouched) and they know I am keeping tabs on what stays and what goes. I screen-capture evidence everyday. I am trying to work this company to the bone. And they will do it because they know that I know it is the best defense in a court room. Pandora has MANY sites mouthing off about their vehement protection of their precious name, but it's almost impossible to find a place to contact them about this matter. Why? Because it would cost them too much money in manpower to send thousands of C&D letters. I have no idea why some jerk-off decided to come after glass artist's using Pandora as a search term, and really that's all we all are doing, none of us tried to trick the public into thinking Pandora's peeps in Thailand made OUR beads. There are MANY examples of outright counterfeits and Trademark infringment, and they need to get to work. Also, for the record, I was using Pandora in my titles, and I know now, that by legal definition, I was wrong. But I was not intentionally trying to infringe, I was simply using it as a term for the search engine to recognize my product, because as we all know, it is a very largely searched term on Etsy. However, by all rights, there should be NO LEGALLY ACCEPTABLE PANDORA PRODUCTS ON ETSY, period. Etsy is for handmade or Vintage goods. Both disqualify Pandora products. And supplies are out, as well. To sell Pandora, you must be an authorized dealer, and in that agreement, it clearly states that you must have a brick and mortar store, or a website approved by them, and auction and market type venues are clearly not acceptable. But, to even clarify it a bit more, you can go here
http://www.pandoragroup.com/About-Pandora/Contacts to check to see if someone is an authorized seller.
Etsy is well aware of this, please note this conference that the head of legal at Etsy attended in the post on August 12th
http://www.ipinbrief.com/tag/trademark-infringement/
But by making Etsy a fair market, they might lose money. They are protected under the DMCA(Digital Millennium Copyright Act) google it, too much info to put here, which is why even if they KNOW or YOU flag, they will not remove a listing, until they get a C&D from an authorized person.
Well, I'm off to call Slavi what ever her name is. There are several chinese trademark infringers that she needs to attend to. It's her job.
Go here to see what The Royal Heiness says herself
http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...id=pandora.cph
And then I like what these people say
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/disci...023498.article
That much profit, but they spend a "members" fee at React to shut little people down. They'll eventually lose their trademark because it's a generic term now, because they're greedy bastards and won't spend time and money to go after big game.