“A Lesson in Trademark Infringement”

I am including this entire post for fear it will be deleted by Etsy Administration, and it is a MUST READ for the Etsy seller.

GoddessOfJewelry7:41 pm Nov 16, 2013 EST edited  So my shop got shut down last week over a Trademark Infringement and I have some words of advice for you all as I’ve hired a lawyer to sort through this BS for me.

1) Just because you were served with a Trademark Infringement and Etsy removed your listing DOES NOT MEAN that someone at Etsy Legal even CHECKED THE VALIDITY of the US Trademark Reg Number.I was served with a Trademark Infringement – my third one – nothing was ever malicious, I erroneously used words that I honestly didn’t think were trademarked – I never bothered to check! But this particular third one – the one that got my shop shut down DOES NOT EXTEND TO JEWELRY. I currently have my lawyers sorting through this for me and I will be filing the forms with Etsy to counter this decision to remove the listing and shut down my shop.

Don’t, FOR ONE SECOND, ever ever ever assume that Etsy Legal has YOUR BACK. YOU, you the shop owner, who is Etsy’s client… Etsy does NOT have your back. Nobody bothered to check these trademark Registration numbers to see if they even extended to my shop. Which leads me to my second point

2) There IS NO PHONE SUPPORT. For a website that continuously preaches “the human aspect” of e-commerce and sales, there is NO “human aspect” when it comes to how WE, their clients, are treated.

Over the entire period that I was freaking out, I was never able to get Etsy on the phone. I managed to finally freak out loud enough in the forums to get someone from Admin to ask me to send them a screen shot of the Help Page that leads to nowhere and doesn’t give me a “request phone call” box (and then they concluded that something must be wrong with my iOS – gee, thanks), I managed to get some very cold emails from Etsy Legal basically telling me to retain counsel, and I managed to get an Admin to ask me to request a call back on the Help Page, WHEN THERE IS NO CALL REQUEST BOX on any of the Help Pages. Over the course of the many exchanges over my email, I included my phone number, begging for a phone call…AND NOT ONCE did I receive a phone call.

3) There is no such thing as a “Blanket trademark”. Meaning, just because someone’s trademarked the words (just using an easy example here) “Moulin Rouge” does NOT mean that it would necessarily apply to clothing or jewelry or pillowcases. They need to file a Trademark Registration for clothing, a different trademark registration for pottery, a different trademark registration for bedding/linens, a different trademark registration for playing cards, and so on and so forth. These jerks at the company who filed the Trademark Infringement against my item KNOW FULL WELL that their TR does not extend to jewelry and yet they filed it anyway, and Etsy took down my listing AND my shop without once questioning the validity of the claim by this company.

4) Etsy will shut down MY shop (and YOUR shop) over accidental Trademark Infringments, they don’t care about your otherwise impeccable track record here on Etsy, you get three strikes and that’s it – you’re out. But Etsy themselves will send out Etsy Finds email FULL OF TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENTS.

Does anyone remember the Mad Men Etsy Finds emails? Yup – that’s trademarked.

Or the 80’s themed one where every different section had lyrics from 80’s songs as the header? I’m sure those lyrics are the Intellectual property of the artists and they would not appreciate Etsy using them for commercial purposes.

If there was an Etsy Finds Archive anywhere, I’m sure there’d be AT LEAST one every 2 weeks that was full of Trademark/Copyright Infringements.

But none of this is neither here nor there. The bottom line is that unless you understand how trademark infringements work (and don’t bother asking in the forums, trust me, you will get SO MUCH misinformation) you will be left out in the cold. Hopefully you will know (or someone you know will know someone) who is a lawyer who may be able to offer you some un-official legal guidance before you decide if you need to hire someone or if you can file some of the fairly easy paperwork yourself.

Yes, I understand that I put myself in this position by making these mistakes, but each one was an honest mistake. As I said before I don’t re-sell – I make everything myself with own two hands, I don’t sell Hello Kitty (there are currently over 28 thousand listings on Etsy), I don’t sell counterfeit Louis Vuitton (over 3000 listings of LV on Etsy, I’d daresay at least half of them are fake {one of the very first listings on the very first page even says it’s a counterfeit bag} and a third are not vintage NOR handmade – so what are they?!?) but yet Etsy doesn’t care about honest mistakes…

They
Will
Shut
Down
Your
Store

I want to keep selling here on Etsy. I want my shop re-opened so that I can sell through all my inventory.

But I want this to be a lesson to you ALL. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, as I have. Diversify. Sell in other places. Put up your own website. Do Craft Shows. Because Etsy CAN and WILL shut down your shop if they decide.

Bottom line – protect yourself. We just bought a house and I lost my main source of income. Be vigilant. Nobody has your back. NOBODY.