Back to Commandments I. Do Not Ignore the Listing Takedown Notice. The reason for this is that eBay and other providers keeps score. If you get shutdown for too many "alleged infringing" auctions, eBay and other providers can, and will, suspend your account for whatever time period they want. There is no set standard that we know of as to when providers will strike. Provider representatives will not tell you what their rules are for several reasons. One, they can change their many rules quite often and constantly adds new rules. Two, the employees who administer the rules appear to be poorly trained and minimum wage employees. Three, if the providers do not tell you what the rules are then they cannot later be blamed for misleading you. Back to Commandments II. Do Not Re-list your items until after you have determined the exact reason(s) for the takedown. Do not Guess! If you re-list without getting the reason(s) for the takedown you can expect your listing to be again shutdown and your account suspended indefinitely. In the takedown email, the provider should warn you not to re-list and they mean it! Far too often sellers assume they know what the problem is only to find out later it was something else. Back to Commandments III. Do Not Delay emailing for an explanation. Carefully read the takedown email to determine who terminated your auction. Sometimes the takedown will come from the provider instead of another member. Get to them right away especially while your case is fresh in their minds. Be specific and as short as possible in your request. Long, rambling and threatening emails will not get you a quick answer. If they do not reply within 24 hours, begin emailing them several times a day and number your emails (i.e., Request For Explanation #4, Request For Explanation #5, etc) in the subject line for future reference. Go on-line and look for the names of managers and employees of the company, or the law firm, and email everyone you can until you get an answer. Back to Commandments IV. Do Not Contact the provider if your listing was ordered terminated by another member or claimed rights owner. The provider does not really care about you or your problem. It considers you a pest and will treat you as such. They are not required to take action against you when a "Rights Owner" complains to them but they will take action in order to minimize the possibility of being sued by the claimed rights owner. There are a lot of actual infringing listings on the internet, and as far a provider is concerned, you are one of the infringing sellers because the claimed rights owner said so! Contacting the provider only is useful when the claiming member has an invalid email and then, maybe then, the provider might do something. But do not hold your breath. The provider assumes you are guilty as charged and will not waste its time helping you. Back to Commandments V. Do Not Erase or Delete any emails or communications with the terminating member or the provider. Start and maintain a paper trail until the issue gets resolved. Create a folder on your computer or email server and save the emails. This avoids a "He said, She said" problem later. Keep these emails because rights members love to lie and they forget a lot. Especially save emails from lawyers. Corporate lawyers are paid to lie to you so keep track of the lies. Back to Commandments VI. Do Not Verbally Communicate with the terminating member or their lawyers. They are only interested in their side of the issues and possibly will later lie or distort statements to make you look bad or create a legal advantage. When it is in writing they cannot restructure the facts to their advantage. Besides, many times these lawyers have experience in weasel-wording and can twist your spoken intentions to their advantages. They are experienced in debate and you are not. The corporate lawyers are more experienced in intimidation and will throw legalese and jargon at you until you are confused and you are willing to admit that you invaded Mesopotamia in 343 BC. Back to Commandments VII. Do Not Admit to doing anything wrong. Just because the terminating member has claimed you were wrong does not mean you were legally in the wrong. Even if it turns out you were infringing, never admit to doing anything wrong. Many times the only way the "rights owner" can get damages from you is to show a court you were a "willing infringer". This is a difficult standard to meet and usually will only be granted against parties who are involved in criminal or large scale infringing activities. Even if you were infringing, if you cease selling upon being notified that they consider your actions to be infringing, they have a very weak case for willful infringement. And do not tell the terminating member how many of the items you have sold or have in inventory and do not agree to give them any sales records. However, do not assume that you were not infringing. Infringement comes in many forms. One survey claimed that some 30% of all takedown claims were from competitors trying to take advantage of the rules and regulations. We estimate that as many takedown claims are false assertions of infringement by companies that want to control the secondary market. Back to Commandments VIII. Do Not Believe the terminating member's jargon, lies, and threats. It is likely the "rights Owner" will throw a lot of legal jargon at you claiming trademark infringement, dilution, unauthorized use, copyright infringement, etc. What they don't often tell you is that they are actually misrepresenting the legal definitions in an effort to scare you into compliance. Can we say, "they are lying"? Why do they do this? Because they can. It is up to you to determine the real facts of law. Do not believe what they tell you without checking up on it. Remember, corporate lawyers are paid to lie to you. Back to Commandments IX. Do Not Sign anything from the terminating member or from the provider. The terminating member might tell you to sign something agreeing not to violate their trademark/copyright and they will reinstate you. Do not. If they are willing to go that far they have a very weak case and your signature could be used against you in court. The provider will sometimes tell you to sign a statement as part of their reinstatement procedure. Don't. The statement you sign is often broadly worded and you might not realize that it means it covers all auctions for all items, regardless. Someone could get mad at you and falsely have another listing terminated and the provider will suspend you with no chance of reinstatement because you agreed in writing to "never again" list something that was infringing. Back to Commandments X. Do Not Pay Any Monies, or agree to pay any monies, to the terminating member or their representatives. Many of these "representatives" falsely claim that you "owe" them monies for violating their trademark and that they could get this money easily by going to court. We firmly believe this constitutes trademark extortion because they are using the threat of harm to you if you do not pay them off. They have to prove you are a "willing infringer" (see Commandment VII) in order to get damages. The chances of them proving you a willful infringer are slim to none. Back to Commandments XI. Do Not Believe that they will win and that you will lose. They will try to browbeat you into submission. They will exaggerate their legal position while minimizing yours in an attempt to scare you into compliance. They will throw jargon and threats at you. Why? Because they want you to settle outside of court on their terms. Again,corporate lawyers are paid to lie to you. And they will. Back to Commandments XII. Do Not Compare Your Listings to other listings running on the internet. It is a waste of time and effort. It does not matter how many other people are selling the same item, you are the one that got shut down. Do not worry about what other people are doing. Do not think that because there are a hundred other sellers out there selling the same item, using the same pictures and the same descriptions, that it matters one bit. It does not. The provder will not listen and the terminating member will ignore you. Back to Commandments XIII. Do Not Argue with Tabberone after asking her for her opinions. People have solicited the opinion of Tabberone and then argue with her about the points. If you are not going to listen then do not waste her time. I am happy to answer questions but read the information on the trademark pages before emailing me. A lot of your questions will be answered. Remember that my advice is based on my experiences. To date, I have had over 15 VeRO members retract their eBay takedowns, many after I sued them in federal court while representing myself.