eBay Announces Changes to its VeRO Program, eff. Jan. 18, 2010

(Source: eBay.com)

Dateline: Dec. 15, 2009

eBay Customer Support recently sent out an email to VeRo participants notifiying them of some changes to the VeRO process for Verified Rights Owners (VeRO). For your convenience, we are including it below verbatim:

"Dear VeRO Particpant,

We wanted to let you know that starting January 18, 2010 we are changing the process for requesting seller contact information through the VeRO Program Personal Information Agreement. Along with the seller ID and item number, we ask that you include the type of intellectual property infringement you are investigating. You may either provide a written explanation for each seller ID or use a reason code from the list below.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Trademark – Item infringement
1.1. Item(s) is a counterfeit product which infringes the trademark
owners rights

Trademark – listing content infringement
2.1. Listing(s) contains unlawful comparison to trademark owner’s brand
name
2.2. Listing(s) contains unlawful use of trademark (e.g., unlawful use
of stylized logo in written text) ___________________ (please specify)

Copyright – item infringement
3.1. Software offered for sale in violation of an enforceable license
agreement which constitutes a copyright infringement
3.2. Item(s) infringe copyrights (e.g., a bootleg recording of live
performance, pirated copy of media such as software or movies, or
unlawful copy of copyrighted works such as text, paintings, or
sculptures).

Copyright – listing content infringement
4.1. Listing(s) uses unlawful copy of copyrighted text
4.2. Listing(s) uses unlawful copy of copyrighted image
4.3. Listing(s) uses unlawful copy of copyrighted image and text

Other infringement
5.1. Item(s) has been adjudged to infringe a valid and enforceable
patent (requires patent registration number, and identification of
claims adjudged to be infringed)
5.3. Item(s) violates a celebrity’s right of publicity
5.4. Listing(s) content violates a celebrity’s rights of publicity
5.5. Other _____________________________________________
(please specify)


Regards,
eBay VeRO Team"
--------------------------------------------

VeRO, as you may know, allows I.P. Owners and/or their counsel an effective way to take down offending auction sites on eBay that offer counterfeit goods. The undersigned has used VeRo numerous times on behalf of client's who have sought to stop third parties from selling counterfeit product that reproduces the client's trademarks and/or copyrighted artwork.

For those unfamiliar with VeRO, here is a link to the eBay webpage re same:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/programs-vero-ov.html

Until next time.....


William E. Maguire
www.TrademarkEsq.com