The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides certain safe harbors for companies engaged in online commerce (ecommerce).  eBay has developed a program known as its Verified Rights Owner program (VeRO) to comply with the DMCA safe harbors and to help protect the copyrights of companies, whose products are offered for sale over eBay.  Although the DMCA applies to copyrights only, eBay’s VeRO program includes patent, trademark, and other rights.  

Some have complained that eBay’s auctions are plagued with counterfeit goods  One way a trademark brand owner can protect its trademarks and prevent trademark counterfeiting is to avail itself of eBay’s VeRO program.  Counterfeit goods bearing counterfeit trademarks are too often offered for sale by unscrupulous sellers to unwitting buyers and in violation of the brand owners’ trademark rights.  But eBay’s VeRO procedure allows the trademark owner to provide notice of a suspected infringing counterfeit product.  eBay will likely remove an item, thereby canceling an auction or listing, typically within 24 hours of receiving a VeRO brand owner’s notice of infringement.  Under that process, the seller may file a counter notice and if accepted, eBay requires the owner to file suit within 10 days or the listing will be reinstated.  The eBay VeRO procedure thus provides an effect process for trademark owners to stop trademark counterfeiting.  The VeRo procedure is substantially the same for alleged violations of copyrights and patent rights.  

Recently, a court decided in a lawsuit against eBay by Tiffany that eBay could not be held liable for counterfeit Tiffany® products sold on eBay.  The court reached this conclusion in part because eBay took reasonable steps to cancel auctions for counterfeit products when it learned of them.  eBay’s VeRO program is one of the ways eBay can police its auctions and protect intellectual property rights, including trademark, copyright, and patent rights.  

 

 

 

 

If you are interested in additional information on you intellectual property rights, or if you have any questions regarding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or our copyright protection services, please contact one of Dallas copyright lawyers.   We offer an array of services in the areas of intellectual property including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets as well as intellectual property litigation and enforcement.  Detailed information on these and other services is available at www.kk-llp.com.  In addition, we act as local counsel in patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and commercial litigation cases in the state and federal courts in the Northern District of Texas.  Further information on our local counsel practice is available at www.kk-llp.com/localcounsel.