eBay Strikes Back, Sues For Frivolous DMCA Takedowns
from the good-for-them dept
For quite some time we've seen companies try to make bogus intellectual property claims against people reselling their products on eBay. For example, a company making shampoo once claimed that you couldn't resell its bottles online -- even when legally purchased. The companies always claim that only "authorized" resellers are allowed to sell their products, and they must do so at a specific price. Last year, when the Supreme Court changed rules about whether manufacturers could demand retailers abide by a specific price, it kicked off speculation that we'd see more such cases. In fact, that's exactly what happened. In one case, a company named Innovate! Technology claimed that someone selling their products on eBay violated their intellectual property (including patents, trademarks and copyright!). The real complaint, of course, had nothing to do with intellectual property, but that this seller was selling below the company's official pricing. This seemed pretty ridiculous already, but these types of cases are designed to scare off small time sellers who don't have big legal guns to back them up.However, Innovate appears to have made a huge strategic error that has brought some big legal guns into the case, and they're clearly pointed at shooting Innovate's use of the DMCA down. Greg Beck writes in to note that while the case was directly between Innovate and the eBay seller, Innovate made the mistake of pushing to get eBay involved in the case. Normally, eBay just does what's required of it in DMCA cases and gets out of the way. However, now that eBay is involved, it got involved in a big way. It's fighting back against Innovate, claiming that Innovate has been filing bogus DMCA requests and so now eBay is seeking damages, attorney's fees and an injunction preventing Innovate from filing any more DMCA notices to eBay. In other words, it's trying to make an example of Innovate. Hopefully it works, and others pursuing this same strategy of trying to stop legitimate competition through bogus DMCA notices will think twice before continuing.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: dmca, first sale, price fixing, takedown
Companies: ebay, innovate
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Let's not be too proud of eBay here...
Darn. I must have gotten up on the cynical side of my bed this morning!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Let's not be too proud of eBay here...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
oooh
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
what's the point...
Some other companies even honor warranties on their products sold through internet auctions, beginning on the sale dato. This teaches me to keep shopping those brands, and not shop Innovate.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: what's the point...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Oh man.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Kudos to ebay, and may ebay rend the flesh from the bones of it's enemies!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Innovate! Technology
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
EBay is not an IP hero
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Let's not be too proud of eBay here...
eBay has never been under pressure for their operating expenses. Capital spending, if anything, is the only hot topic on that side of the balance sheet.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I wonder what will the music industry say or do?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
To everyone else talking about how eBay's only looking after #1 - that's fine. Hopefully this will help set a precedent that people who issue DMCA notices really do have to be sure that they own the relevant copyrights and reduce bogus compliants for everyone. It will reduce eBay's costs, but will also help many other industries who have to waste money on this kind of garbage.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ebay does what's best for Ebay.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ebay does what's best for Ebay.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ebay does what's best for Ebay.
A giant corporation [mis?]uses the legal system to protect its interests - what's so newsworthy or laudable 'bout that?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Getting It Right
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
#13
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
bogus baloney and bs
I may give it away, resell it or burn it..that's my decision and my right as an American. It no longer belongs to X)???? manufactor or *^?>
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
bogus DMCA
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
VERO
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
VERO
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Same here
Jim
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
EBAY AND THERE FEES SUE EBAY
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
sounds like someone's still doing this...
some "religion" huh?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]