Nanda's Alarm Clock Not Only Runs Away From You, It Runs Away From eBay Too
from the wake-up-nanda dept
It looks like more tangible product companies are trying to pretend they can restrict what you do with legally purchased products post-sale (perhaps they're jealous of content companies). Case in point: my brother received the Nanda Clocky as a gift awhile back -- it's a pretty novel alarm clock, when it goes off, its wheels turn on, and it jumps off your dresser, forcing you to climb out of bed to turn it off. Since he already had an alarm clock that worked for him, he decided to sell it on eBay. A few days before his auction was supposed to close, he got a notice that his listing was removed for a "Trademark Violation - Unauthorized Item." Yes, for a legitimately owned product. The email stated:"Nanda Home Inc. is the owner of the intellectual property rights pertaining to these listings. By listing the 'Clocky' product you are in serious violation of the company's rights. Additionally, Nanda Home does not permit the re-sale of any of their brand product on eBay. There are no authorized Nanda Home re-sellers on eBay. If you continue to list our items, further legal action may be taken."Clearly, Nanda has a gross misunderstanding of the right of people to re-sell their own property. While it's true that it is against the law to sell counterfeit copies of a product, re-selling your own goods and representing them as "real" is completely within the bounds of the law, and eBay policy. To make matters worse, the condescending tone of the email also suggests that:
"You may need to take a tutorial. The next time you sell, you may be asked to take the tutorial, if it's required. Once you've completed the tutorial successfully, please review your account status for any other possible concerns. If there are no other issues, you should be able to sell again."Or, perhaps Nanda and eBay should take a tutorial on the right of first sale. In the aforementioned tutorial, eBay clearly understands the right to re-sell (in fact, a huge part of its business relies upon this fact). Yet, to make matters worse under eBay policy it's still a laborious process to get the item relisted -- even with the bogus takedown notice. As a seller of an incorrectly taken down Clocky listing, you have to contact Nanda and have them specifically authorize your product to be re-listed. Yes, even though it's Nanda who issued the incorrect takedown in the first place. So much for frictionless commerce.
The even bigger problem is in the process in which such listing takedowns are handled. Under the guise of rooting out counterfeit products, Nanda is able to unfairly reduce the number of its own secondhand goods in the marketplace. Other manufacturers have tried to do this in the past for everything from shampoo to radar detectors. And, much like the DMCA process, this "guilty until proven innocent" approach ultimately hurts the consumer, who now has unfairly reduced access to many products that were to be sold completely legally.
That said, my brother followed the eBay process to get his Clocky relisted. They sent him an email apologizing for their error and authorizing him to relist, which he did. Guess what? In an effort to punctuate how ridiculous this policy is, one day later, he got an email, "Trademark Violation - Unauthorized Item."
Anyone want to buy a Clocky?
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Filed Under: alarm clock, auctions, clocky, first sale, trademark
Companies: ebay, nanda
Reader Comments
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re
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Re: re
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Re: Re: re
I would rather mail something sold on eBay than risk a face to face meeting with one of the twitchy freaks that use Craigslist.
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Re: Re: Re: re
Wow, paranoid much? Twitchy freaks? Really?
How about this: meet in a public place and don't share personal info. Problem solved.
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Re: Re: Re: re
If you're so scared of experiencing life... why do you even leave your house?
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Re: Re: Re: re
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Re: re
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damn, 6 minutes too late
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Re: re
Ever.
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Re: Re: re
Ever."
That's my plan.
/adds Nanda to the list of companies to never ever buy stuff from
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Re: re
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This is the problem
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Your brother does need a tutorial, Mike.
I'm glad issues like this plague eBay, as more and more people are finally realizing how crap this "service" is to any consumer. Eventually, this site will fail. It's just a matter of time.
Tell your brother to use Craigslist. It's 100% free and very successful. I've watched this service explode with users who have finally had enough of eBays "terms of services".
But as a favor, don't push your brother's items on us. No, I don't want a clocky. I'm one who positioned the clock far away enough as to warrant a removal from my bed to walk over and shut it off. Cost: $0.
Heh.
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Opening Bid
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Re: Opening Bid
also, from whence is it shipping?
(Or better yet; how about a link to the NEWLY minted craigslist entry for it?)
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The Legal Shotgun
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Re:
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so what can you sell on ebay?
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Re: so what can you sell on ebay?
While etsy.com is indeed for handmade things, do they require that an item sold there is "actually created by the person selling it"?
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FTC
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Re: FTC
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This is exhibit 1 billion of this happening (a rough estimate to be sure). The Internet, like all good ideas, has been largely co-opted by corporate profit taking, and copyright abuse. FUN times.....
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Re:
This is exhibit 1 billion of this happening (a rough estimate to be sure). The Internet, like all good ideas, has been largely co-opted by corporate profit taking, and copyright abuse. FUN times.....
from my cabin in the woods, i stab at thee!
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Plenty of clockys (clockies?) available
"23 results found for clocky"
Wonder how many got takedown notices?
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Is eBay really the villain here?
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Re: Is eBay really the villain here?
Simply because eBay should be the first defense for its customers and block such bullshit from ever hitting their inbox.
Nanda may be tactless in its quest, but it's even *more* tactless for eBay to circumvent its own ToS in order to comply with Nanda's idiocy.
Thus, it's why many are hell bent on blaming eBay, rather than the all-too-common idiocy of Nanda.
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Re: Is eBay really the villain here?
Because while Nanda is certainly guilty of a lack of intelligence, tha fact that Ebay condones and supports this sort of action is truly egregious. Nanda can bend over so we can shove the clock up their a%^, but Ebay should absolutely know better than to give this action any leg to stand on.
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Re: Is eBay really the villain here?
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Re: Re: Is eBay really the villain here?
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Re: Re: Re: Is eBay really the villain here?
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wait a sec...
After sending a challenge to ebay on the takedown notice and getting the item re-listed, doesn't some burden of proof then fall on Clocky people before they can reissue a take down for the same item?
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Re: wait a sec...
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Re: wait a sec...
That is exactly where the problem lies. While the burden of proof should be placed on Nanda to prove that there is some actual infringement, eBay's policy is that the burden of proof is on the person who posted the item to prove that they are not infringing. They then compound the bad policy by allowing the same listing to then be challenged again by the trademark holder, putting the burden of proof again on the person who posted the listing.
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They don't sell crazy here. You want the store down the block...
If that was some sort of reference that's supposed to be descernable, it wasn't.
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Re:
>@Chris: "from my cabin in the woods, i stab at thee!"
>If that was some sort of reference that's supposed to be descernable, it wasn't."
That's just because you are an uneducated idiot. Everyone else got it.
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Re: cabin in the woods reference
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Re:
> to be descernable, it wasn't.
Sure it was. Easily identifiable. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It was even parodied just this week on an episode of the sitcom "Big Bang Theory".
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Report to watchdog
Would reporting both Nanda and eBay to the US equivalent (Better Business Bureau or the FTC?) help? It is a violation of consumer rights.
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Similar problem
The only thing I can think of is either the company whined about the pictures used or they are just abusing the DMCA.
I suggested he take pictures himself with his user ID in the picture so the company can't claim copyright on anything.
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Listing fees
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Re: intersting math
By that math the U.S. has 1.3 billion people. I had no idea that we more than quadrupled our population overnight.
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Re: Re: intersting math
Check your math.
1,000,000/1%/%30 = 333,333,333 people.
That's not far off.
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Re: Re: Re: intersting math
"Just in the United States a good 30% have connections to the internet, out of those maybe 25% have the knowledge to know what is actually going on and if even 1% of those users would do something, voice their opinion, call their congressman, 1,000,000 voices could be heard."
So that's 1,000,000/1%/25%/30%= 1,333,333,333. My math was spot on.
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eBay
I advocate strongly for Craigslist. Unfortunately I would NEVER buy a "print pass" event ticket from some "twitchy freak" on CL.
Which reminds me. I sold the print passes on Ebay recently, right? The guy pays immediately with Paypal. Then I try to x-fer the funds, and I get a note
***eBay now puts a 21 day hold on ALL incoming funds*** They hold it until the BUYER leaves positive feedback. I called them up and said give me my money, NOW. And they did.
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STFU. I have more education in my feces than you have in your whole sorry-excuse for a brain. Now you were saying?
Also STFU for answering for someone elese, sarcasm, idiocy, or else all being put aside.
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Re:
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eBay does not even know their own rules.
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Why not sell it on amazon?
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Caught me on the wrong day......
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Actually they're self taught....
Craigslist is great if you are in a large city but it's not very good anywhere else..
Based on what?
there is nowhere else that you can get a worldwide audience..
Craig's list is content to serve the needs of people in the USA. They don't need to, nor want to compete with ebay.
If you see that as a way to "take on" ebay, they're pretty busy ruining their own buisness.
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/SARCASM
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If this had happened to me
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From the Creators of Clocky
- Nanda Home Team.
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Re: From the Creators of Clocky
THAT is the way to handle a loudly (and publicly) voiced complaint. With class and seminars.
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eBay
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