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Was looking around on eBay when i noticed this seller. Is he an Ozbargain official or just pretends to be?
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X201T-Tablet-Touc…
ozbargain-online-shop
Is this seller associated with OzBargain?
dosada on 07/10/2015 - 22:52
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Am i supposed to understand that?
You must be new here… Search for 'broden'
(It's worth the read)According to legend, Broden used to buy stuff seen on OzBargain and re-sell it. "Broden" became both a verb and a noun.
Perhaps open a Talk With a Moderator thread. That might get attention to your question quicker than a regular forum post. I'm curious about the answer however.
No definitely not associated with us, we don't have an eBay account or sell anything.
There have been a few sellers with usernames similar to this. We receive emails now and then from disgruntled eBayers who have a problem with their order (due to eBay sellers with OzBargain or similar in their eBay username/store name).
There is nothing really stopping anyone from changing their eBay username to contain OzBargain, DickSmith, Woolworths or whatever they wish.
I seriously doubt that Dick Smith or Woolworths would not protect their brand by pursuing anyone who was trying to pass themselves off as a related Ebay seller.
There are at least a few things stopping people from doing this, the law of passing off, the Aust Consumer Code, the Trade Marks Act and Ebay's own rules at least.Yeah I understand that eBay have rules about what usernames can contain, I just meant there is nothing stopping someone from changing a username to anything they like and unless that company both finds out about it and then follows the process to get that username changed then I'd imagine some users would think they are actually buying from that company.
Does OzBargain have similar such rights?
We can contact the seller and ask them nicely to change their username if Scotty wishes to (and if that fails, contact eBay about it) but I guess they would require a bit of verification etc (not sure of the exact process). I think most sellers we've contacted in the past have changed their username when we asked (or asked eBay to do it, as they weren't eligible to change their username again).
Here's eBay's user ID and store name policy. They explicitly stated that user ID & store name cannot contain another entity's trademark name.
It can't be a name that is identical or misleadingly similar to another company's name protected by trademark law. Also, you may not use a name that contains the word eBay or PayPal, or which is misleadingly similar to those names.
There are actually many who claimed to be associated with "ozbargain" on eBay. A google search here. Yes I have been contacting those sellers asking them whether they can change their names, but I'll contact eBay to see what's the correct procedure for this.
"Oz" and "Bargain" do seem pretty generic for selling items in Australia(Oz), ebay especially i would think. Suppose it's possible some of the sellers aren't even aware? Can see how it pushes the boundary on trademark though.
Used separately they are fine , but used as one word violates the trademark.
Is OzBargain a trademark, and for what areas/fields. Note this is in addition to, and separate from business names or domain names.
If OzBargain is a trademark, my understanding is Scotty would need to be vigilant to pursue infringers, lest it be watered down.
To be honest, if I was selling stuff as "kewl oz bargain bazaar' and got a message accusing me of infringing on ozbargain.com.au's naming rights I'd probably tell Scotty he's dreaming.Yes OzBargain is a trademark, class 41 under forums/internet community (IP Australia would not give me trademark related to ecommerce) so from my limited knowledge those eBay stores aren't really infringing it.
That didn't stop Uncle Ronald's fast food company from trying though. Maybe I should learn from them and be more vigilant. Only if lawyers aren't that expensive.
Got this information back from eBay:
First of all, you will need to submit documents to our Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Team. This is so they can confirm that the trademark is indeed yours and so they can take action on those accounts. You will need to submit a claim to VeRO, you'll also need to complete a Notice of Claimed Infringement and send it to the VeRO team by fax.
A copy of the notice is posted on the site. The fax number is printed at the top of the form. Someone from the VeRO team will review your submission and get back to you if they need more information.
Go to (http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/confidence/programs-vero.html) to download the notice and fax it on the number mentioned on the document.
Yeah it looks complicated, and I sorted of stopped at the first occurrence of "fax".
Lol, can't even remember when i saw the last time a fax machine, let alone used it.
eBay is still stuck in the 1990s when it comes to some issues. Guess it's easier to make it to complicated for the customer than to actually do something to fix it.
The time honoured OzBargain way would be to send bikies.
However, it seems times have changed.
Outlaw motorcycle gang Hells Angels sues tech start-up for IP breach
We live in complicated times.
Hmmm. Which one is more scary? Outlaw bikies or their IP lawyers?
Broden returns.