The Licensing Journal: Beyond VeRO: Enforcement of Character-Related Auctions on eBay
Cleveland partner Deborah Wilcox, Ohio coordinator for the firm's Intellectual Property, Technology and Media Practice, co-authored an article, "Beyond VeRO: Enforcement of Character-Related Auctions on eBay," with former Baker Hostetler associate Rosanne Yang, which was published in the June/July 2008 edition of The Licensing Journal.
According to the authors, "Character licensors face a wide variety of infringement enforcement issues in the online world. One major issue is dealing with infringing character-related merchandise being sold via online auctions sites, such as eBay. eBay's enforcement mechanism for countering infringement is well known, operated through the VeRO (Verified Rights Owners) program."
The article goes on to discuss a "few of the relevant eBay policies" for dealing with trademark or copyright infringement, along with other issues which present problems for character licensors, including:
- Keyword spam policy
- Fees and shipping charges policies
- Advertising for external sales
- Categorization errors
- Delayed shipment
- Profanity/language policy
- Misleading title policy
- Bonus, prize, giveaway and raffle policy
The authors conclude: "The eBay policies . . . are tools to help manage the association of a character with objectionable auctions when a licensor cannot utilize the VeRO program . . . It is important to remember, however, that reporting policy violations does not guarantee that the character will be disassociated from the auction, or that the auction or seller will be permanently removed from eBay . . . While the outcome of a violations report is uncertain, reporting violations under eBay's policies is one more way a character licensor may attempt to protect the character's goodwill, distribution and product association on eBay."