eBay Operating Rules | What are the eBay product infringement rules?

Remember the Fingerling Monkey infringement incident that was making a lot of noise? Do you know what constitutes infringement? Let’s talk about eBay product infringement rules in detail:

1. Copy, Counterfeit and Unauthorized Copy Policy

Items with company names, trademarks, and brands that can be listed on eBay must be official authentic products manufactured by the company itself. eBay does not allow any counterfeit items, fakes, copies, or unauthorized copies to be sold.

Unauthorized copying, including backup, private sale, reproduction, piracy, etc., is illegal and will infringe on the intellectual property rights or trademarks of others.

Please note that the following items may infringe third-party intellectual property rights or other ownership issues, so eBay restricts or prohibits the listing of the following items:

● Privately produced pirated videos or audio recordings;

● Copies, imitations and unauthorized copies

● Academic software, beta software, OEM software and other related items;

● Celebrity property items, including portraits, photographs, names, signatures and autographs;

● Brand-specific accessories, packaging, warranties, and other items that are not sold with the brand’s products;

● Media items, including digital products, film copies (35mm, 70mm), pirated records, promotional materials and recordable media;

● Equipment that enables the creation of illegal copies, including software or hardware, chips, game mods and boot disks that allow members to copy copyrighted products.

2. Rules for describing items when listing them

The following actions may infringe third party intellectual property rights when you describe the items you sell:

● Use pictures from manufacturers or other Internet sources without authorization;

● Use item descriptions or images from other eBay users without authorization;

● Encourage or encourage others to infringe third party copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights;

● Improper use of eBay’s intellectual property, including use of the eBay name, logo, or links to eBay’s website;

● Include an “authenticity disclaimer” in the listing, or otherwise refuse to take responsibility for the listed item;

● eBay users cannot use text or image content created by others - including photos and other images, unless authorized by the owner of the text and image, the agent or relevant laws;

Users may use images and text descriptions provided in eBay's product catalog in their item descriptions. The product catalog may include (depending on our screening) images or photos created by the seller of some of the seller's items.

If you choose not to use images or product descriptions from the eBay catalog, the best way to ensure you comply with the policies is to take your own photos and write your own item descriptions.

3. Opportunities to file infringement complaints on eBay

Bronze Seller: 4 times

Gold and Silver Seller: 5 times

Platinum seller: 6 times

Titanium seller: 7 times

Patent infringement records are for three months, and brand infringement records are for one year. If the number is exceeded, the first time will be restricted for 7 days, and the second time will be restricted for 30 days.

If our account is a business account and has good sales and performance, eBay will give us a special opportunity, temporarily restrict our account, and give us a link to a topic of intellectual property infringement, and let us do it. As long as we pass it, we will be restricted for 7 days, 30 days, etc. If we are restricted, we cannot publish or modify the online listing.

There are three common types of infringement: image infringement, trademark infringement, and design infringement. In terms of avoiding infringement, PFHOO has the following three suggestions:

1. Image infringement

This is the easiest way to avoid it. Take and process the product pictures yourself. Don’t just take other people’s good-looking pictures and make them your own. You can imitate others’ methods, but you must never use them directly.

2. Trademark Infringement

When developing new products, be sure to ask suppliers whether they have a brand and whether the brand can be authorized. If you do not get an accurate answer, check whether the product has a logo and whether the logo is a certain brand. If you really want to take the risk to sell it, then the logo must be photoshopped out when it is posted. Brand is filled in as unbranded;

3. Design infringement

This infringement is the most difficult to avoid, because many products in our country will more or less imitate some well-known brands in appearance. You can see it at any time if you check Alibaba, especially there are a lot of Rubik's Cubes and glasses on eBay.

We should usually look at products from well-known brands. In addition, we should see how many sellers are selling the products on our platform. If there are very few listings and most of the brands are branded, then the product is dangerous.