An inventory of the most common types of infringement on the eBay platform

If you ask what cross-border e-commerce sellers are most afraid of, the answer is definitely being blocked by the platform. There are many reasons for blocking, the most common of which should be infringement. Some infringements are unintentional, but the result is complaints, fines, account blocking, and even possible appeals, which is not worth the loss. Today, Saibei editor has sorted out the most common concentrated infringement types on cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay, and wish.

1. Trademark Infringement

It is an infringement to use the other party's registered trademark listing without the official authorization of the product brand, or to write other people's trademarks in your own listing title, five-element features, product description, Search Term keywords and other detailed information when releasing products.

2. Patent Infringement

Patent rights protect novel technologies. Patents include three types: design patents, utility patents, and invention patents.

1. Design patent right: A new design that is aesthetically pleasing and suitable for industrial application made by the shape, pattern, color or combination of a product. Simply put, it looks similar. As long as more than 60% of the people who are familiar with it complain about infringement, they will be punished.

2. Utility patent right: refers to a new technical solution that is suitable for practical use for the shape, structure or combination of a product. It is sometimes called a small invention or a small patent and is more practical.

3. Invention patent right: If a product has an invention patent right, it cannot be produced and sold without permission, which means it is a counterfeit product.

Patent infringement is relatively difficult to identify, because to determine whether a product has a patent, you need to find its patent holder, patent name or patent number, but this is not an easy task for sellers. Therefore, in order to avoid patent infringement, sellers must try to obtain relevant information about the product through multiple channels during product selection and product release. Consulting suppliers and asking experienced peer sellers for advice are all effective ways to identify patent infringement.

3. Copyright Infringement

The focus of copyright protection is original works. In fact, whether copyright registration is done or not, the author enjoys the copyright. However, if copyright registration is not done, it is difficult to prove who the original author is.

Amazon’s copyright infringement generally involves copyright infringement of some classic images (these are generally detected by robots), and theft of other people’s images (this is generally what everyone is complaining about you).

The most common copyright infringements are the characters of American cartoons, such as X-Men and Spider-Man. Japanese cartoon characters are also very popular, such as Hello Kitty and Mr. Cat from Natsume's Book of Friends, which are printed on cups and pillows.

Another type is when sellers don’t realize they are using other people’s pictures: “My pictures come from Taobao or suppliers.” Therefore, to prevent this problem from happening, it is safer for sellers to take product pictures themselves.

IV. Image Infringement

Image infringement usually occurs between third-party sellers. When they see a product picture from another store that looks good, they use it. The seller who took the original picture can directly file a complaint with the original picture. In fact, there are so many art studios on the market that do outsourced image processing, and sellers can easily handle their own pictures.

The above are the most common types of concentrated infringements on cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and eBay. Cross-border e-commerce sellers must pay attention to this. Not only have sales platforms strengthened the management of brand registration, but there are also many foreign trademark registrants who are watching closely. Once an infringement occurs, the listing may be deleted at best, or the account may be removed from sales privileges at worst, and the right holder may even take legal action.

Finally, the editor of Saibei reminds everyone that the best way to deal with it is to prevent it in advance. Before making a transaction, you must understand the intellectual property status of the goods to avoid infringement.