Everyone from artist and designers to brand owners and inventors know that protecting intellectual property rights on the internet can be an uphill battle. You may have finally figured out how to get Amazon to take down a listing that copied your product photos and then you have another infringer selling counterfeit products under your trademark. This can be exhausting and is a normal part of doing business online. Well, Amazon’s marketplace is not the only site you need to be watching for infringing activity.
ShopBase.com is a Vietnamese based online print on demand and dropship company. These services make it easy for infringers to create knock off or counterfeit products, infringe copyrights and trademarks, and make money doing it. Unless ShopBase has a stringent review policy, it is likely that Vietnamese infringers and other infringers all over the world will take advantage of their services, which can facilitate the illegal infringement of IP owner’s rights.
Currently the ShopBase Print on Demand and Dropship private group on Facebook has over 2,500 members and membership appears to be steadily growing. The ease at which print on demand and drop shipping services are provided increases the risk that careless service providers could facilitate infringement. The potential infringement facilitation by ShopBase could be significant for brand owners and copyright holders in particular.
As any Amazon or Alibaba seller knows, keeping up with the marketplace’s policies related to reporting infringement is often a full time job by itself. Now it is more important than ever for IP rights holders to monitor and respond to infringement. Companies like ShopBase must be aware of the potential for infringers to misuse their services and must be vigilant. ShopBase should have a rigorous IP rights policy in place, but you, the owner of the IP, must be ready in the event an instance of infringement is discovered.
Our attorneys are well versed in online sales platforms, dropshipping and print on demand related infringement. We have helped clients battle to protect their trademarks, copyrights, patents and other IP rights. If you think that your rights have been infringed or you want to make a plan to protect your rights through registration or other means, please reach out to our trademark infringement lawyers today to discuss how we can help.
