MORE Counterfeits on Shopify

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Kristi asked Jun 22, '17

MORE Counterfeits on Shopify

My sales took a HUGE drop so I again searched GOOGLE SHOPPING. If you are not doing so, PLEASE do it at least once a week. My sales dropped by 75% due to the sheer number of counterfeits being sold through Google Shopping.

Sites using SHOPIFY are EASY to deal with. I recommend sending in notices to them ASAP if you find your work on one of their sites. They will remove it and ban accounts! Yes, these jerks will open up a new site elsewhere, but it makes their theft much more difficult. Additionally, if you report the GOOGLE SHOPPING listings, they will be removed and your sales will go back up! If you expect to maintain your business, you have to deal with the counterfeits unfortunately.

Here is a list of SHOPIFY sites I reported today:

There are other sites on GOOGLE SHOPPING that are not SHOPIFY sites, they are more difficult to deal with, but there are still avenues to pursue! Report them to GOOGLE SHOPPING to get the listings removed. This cuts off their advertisement and helps prevent them from selling them! Additionally, you can report them to PAYPAL who will stop payments and suspend sales!

copyright

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Answer 1 · 2017-06-22T18:18:57Z

Kristi answered Jun 22, '17

To report sites to PAYPAL - use the form here: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/infringementrpt-full

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Answer 2 · 2017-06-22T18:41:16Z

Snof answered Jun 22, '17

Have you run across this one, Kristi? https://fireamshop.com

I am a real newbie, but I just saw one of my shirts pop up as an ad on google.

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Kristi commented · Jun 22, 2017 at 06:50 PM

I haven't found mine on their site, but they are a shopify site. I would definitely report them if you find your images on their site.

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Snof Kristi commented · Jun 22, 2017 at 06:56 PM

Thanks, I will. Yes, it was definitely mine. They even took my description word for word. I did report them to Google Shopping already. Found a post from a few months ago from you about the form letter to report someone. Thanks for that, too! Quick question: When reporting them, I am a little hesitant about using my name fearing they will seek retribution. Has that ever been an issue for you?

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Kristi Snof commented · Jun 22, 2017 at 07:07 PM

Legally, you have to provide your name. I haven't had any serious issues in regards to retribution. Though I did have them make false claims to Amazon about MY listings but it was easy to prove the work is mine and that the claim was fraudulent. Nothing else has ever happened. It's not easy to put up with being stolen from, fighting back is our only option. There is no future in this business if you allow your work to be sold illegally.

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Answer 3 · 2017-06-22T19:56:09Z

TEES answered Jun 22, '17

Nobody took mine. Do they use the same exact image that you designed? Do they use the same fonts you used? Did you illustrate your own design or use same nonexclusive clipart?

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Kristi commented · Jun 22, 2017 at 10:12 PM

They use the EXACT image from Amazon. They use the same title, bullets, description, etc... It is a clear case of copyright infringement as well as trademark infringement (in my case).

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TEES commented · Jun 23, 2017 at 10:29 AM

This is terrible. Why do people do this.

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Answer 4 · 2017-06-22T20:20:15Z

regina stenger answered Jun 22, '17

I just went to Google Shopping and looked for one of my best sellers, which hasn't been selling anymore. There it is, offered by a company called Zapotee (?). So that's why my sales stopped. Same everything P4P. I don't know if it's Shopify or just Google Shopping. (How do you tell the difference?)

Makes me sick. THANK YOU for the heads-up. Now to check on all the others... :-(

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Kristi commented · Jun 22, 2017 at 08:27 PM

To find out who is hosting the site, use a site like this one: whoishostingthis.com

Just type in the site url and it'll tell you if it is Shopify or another host.

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regina stenger commented · Jun 22, 2017 at 08:31 PM

Just looked for another of my better selling shirts on Google Shopping. Yep, there it is, having been stolen P4P by a company called sonitee !! --- Is reporting to Google easy to do? How does one find their form to fill out? --- Again, THANK YOU, Kristi.

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TEES commented · Jun 22, 2017 at 08:38 PM

Is it the exact design?

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regina stenger TEES commented · Jun 23, 2017 at 12:32 AM

Yes, it's the EXACT design. (And I've found a few more since writing my earlier post.)

Another thing I did was search for some of Amazon's better selling tees. They are not mine, but I wanted to see if they're on GoogleShopping. Here's one example:

I looked at a Great Smoky Mountains Merch t-shirt which features abstract pointy mountains in rich colors and a bear walking, and an orange sun above. I noticed its sales rank is 750 or so. Here I found that same shirt on GoogleShopping under these shop names: natsishop, tomashirt, zipetee, harushirt, teebina, zentashore, pokastore, mouzishop, topicatee, avengershirt, just for starters! So do they scour listings or use some app to track down the best BSR's and just copy them?

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Answer 5 · 2017-06-22T21:28:01Z

Snof answered Jun 22, '17

I just found another counterfeit site -- for a shirt that has only sold once. Here's the company url (it's a Shopify site): https://collectioninstore.com. Anyone seen this site? Exact design and exact description. Not just a text shirt, either. Image and text.

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regina stenger commented · Jun 23, 2017 at 12:59 AM

I just looked at it now. Very interesting. I tried to find my shirts there, but don't think they have any. Are some of your shirts on there Snof?

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Snof regina stenger commented · Jun 23, 2017 at 01:17 PM

Yes, they have at least one of my shirts.

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Answer 6 · 2017-06-23T11:41:31Z

Joe G answered Jun 23, '17

guys although i agree with all these copycat claims, have you not thought that they are buying the goods from your merch shop and reselling why else would you see a markup price on their websites/stores.

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Kristi commented · Jun 23, 2017 at 12:38 PM

This is NOT TRUE. I've done extensive research into these sites over the past year. NONE Of them are buying our shirts and re-selling them. They are ALL printing illegal copies using services such as CustomCat. They are printing them on brands of t-shirts NOT OFFERED through merch. They are NOT marking them up. In most cases, their prices are LOWER or the SAME as what are being sold on Amazon. When they do have a higher price, it is only because they can get away with charging that amount and bring in sales. It isn't because they are buying them from us and marking them up. Please, don't offer up such theories unless you have researched the websites as I (and others) have done. This misleads people into believing there is a chance they are not being robbed, when they are! NONE of these sites are legitimate. They are all crooks.

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Joe G Kristi commented · Jun 23, 2017 at 01:03 PM

well if thats the case and you have actually purchased these t-shirts as proof in your research, then it would have to be up to Amazon to stop image theft on their site but we know that wont happen, so rock on.

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regina stenger commented · Jun 23, 2017 at 01:09 PM

I wish this were the case, Macca. That would be great.

But so far the shirts of mine that I found aren't marked up, they're about $3 to $4 cheaper. And some of my shirts only had one sale and a pretty good BSR. I'm trying to find little niches for shirts and maybe that's why I have some good BSRs, even tho I only have one or two sales with a few of them.

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Joe G regina stenger commented · Jun 23, 2017 at 01:28 PM

unfortunately this POD concept is very easy to replicate for the bad boys, I have owned my own clothing brand for almost 25yrs now, we design all patterns in house and have been fighting no end with chinese copiers for years, in the end we just gave up its just too time consuming unless your abercrombie and have that sort of money to throw at it, POD will and probably is far far worse as its very easy to make copies and unless Amazon do something in the early stages to combat this i'm afraid it will have a very short lifespan to be worthwhile in any case.

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regina stenger Joe G commented · Jun 23, 2017 at 09:01 PM

Thanks and how cool you do in house stuff! -- It amazes me that since this market has been so generously opened up to China, they can't play by the rules (?). I must be pretty naïve to think that when a great opportunity is handed to someone, they respect it and do their own work, not steal!! I found a few more of my shirts are being sold by some Vietnam companies... Man, WHY can't they create their own cool stuff and quit the thievery. Million dollar question, that one!

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Answer 7 · 2017-06-25T00:36:06Z

Ricardo Almeida answered Jun 25, '17

Here we have more thieves I found out just by doing a Google search for one of my designs. They stole the same design from me:

Teekop, Andotee. Sishastore. Dodotee, Famistee. Tomashirt, Ototee, Topicatee,

Hazatee, Sorotee, Zicotee.

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regina stenger commented · Jun 25, 2017 at 02:14 PM

Yep Ricardo, same here. I recognize several of those names.

I wish there'd be a system in place to ban these shops permanently. If each of our original designs had say a digitized "code" embedded within which would prohibit copycats from even taking screen shots or scraping or whatever they do to easily steal. That would be so great!

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regina stenger regina stenger commented · Jun 27, 2017 at 08:02 PM

Ricardo... today I just found a shirt of mine being sold by ALL but one of your list. Looked them up, they are hosted by AbeloHost A.V. or something like that. An offshore hosting site. Maybe they are the same store, just with the "appearance" of different shop names (?).

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Answer 8 · 2017-06-25T04:47:20Z

Susan answered Jun 25, '17

My sales has been poor these past few days and now I know why! I saw many of my designs on the sites listed by Kirsti Please tell me how to report to Google Shopping about these thieves! Thanks all!

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Answer 9 · 2017-06-25T05:07:06Z

Susan answered Jun 25, '17

Okay, I just did a live chat with a rep at Shopify and she told me to file a complain on their legal/DMCA site. The thing is, it asked for owner of Copyright. I have no copyrights, but they are my original designs. Do I still have a right? This is so infuriating!!!

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Luke commented · Jun 25, 2017 at 10:14 AM

Hi Susan,

When you create an original piece of work you own the copyright for that work. Copyright protection is automatically given to works as soon as they are fixed in material form (ideas are not protected, only the permanent expression of those ideas). You do not have to go through any legal process or registration to establish copyright.

It can be useful to have the original photoshop/illustrator files etc which will show a time stamp of when created and/or proof of your upload date onto Merch or whatever platform.

From my experience so far Shopify tend to be very good at removing infringing stores very quickly, but they just pop up under another name.

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Answer 10 · 2017-06-25T10:09:59Z

Luke answered Jun 25, '17

Add pranatee.com too. So many poor P4P copies out there.

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