Ebay pulled my auction

[johnsironsanctuary]

I put up an estate sale 18" Dimalloy adjustable wrench. In the description, I described it as " An 18 inch Crescent type wrench".  I had one bid of $50. At the request of Apex Tool Group, Ebay pulled the auction down and made it disappear. Apex Tool Group alerted them of my blatant copyright infringement. I was not told to fix it. They just pulled it, disappointing bothe myself and the bidder. Now, up until today, I did not know who Apex Tool Group is. Now that I do, it will take some unusual circumstances before I ever spend money on these brands. I am not usually into posting sour grapes, but I thought the experience was worth sharing. 

Talk about engulf and devour. Check out the hand tool brands.

http://www.apextoolgroup.com/brands-faceting/handtool

Power Tools

http://www.apextoolgroup.com/brands-faceting/powertool








450. 

[rusty]

Ahh...yes, they bought just about everyone who was left ;P

And...yes, they are *very* protective of the Crescent trademark, but then, so was Crescent Tool company before....

(Probably the concurrence of both Diamond and Crescent set them off ;P


One does wonder if the sale of one $50 wrench really hurt their  bottom line all that much tho, particularly discounting the time they paid someone for to look at stray ebay ads to see if they should file a takedown....*sigh*

(You can lose a trademark by not enforcing it tho...probably been listening to their lawyers again....)

[1930]

I do not understand....what was the reason it was removed?

[rusty]

Trademark infringement, using one companies trademark to sell another companies product is illegal, and a valid reason for a takedown request...(Which is less messy than a lawsuit)

Most internet sites will remove contect if the owner of a trademark makes a claim that it is being infringed..

Gory stuff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notice_and_take_down

[fflintstone]

Just relist without "crescent" in it.

[eddie hudson]

Just relist without "crescent" in it.

+1

[Bill Houghton]

Of course, the irony is that most of those conglomerate companies do more damage to the trademark by producing cr*p under a once-honorable name.  I can't speak for Apex, but it's sure true for a lot of other companies.

[strik9]

    Same text with 'adjustable' in place of 'Crescent'.    That says exactly the same thing without Apex having anything to say.

    Try anything remotely related to a Snap-On copyright just for fun........   Thier sharks are prowling Ebay  24 - 7.

[johnsironsanctuary]

I actually do know better. There are times, however,  especially when I have read an excessive amount of retail consumer hogwash, when I develop a serious case of cereberal flatulence. As I was putting up the auction, I think that I was using the trademarked term much the way that any brand of facial tissue is referred to as Kleenex in conversation.  I am so ashamed of myself that I have checked myself into an online 11 step  rehab program. Step 1 is to accept the fact that lawyers that are on retainer to retail brands need to justify their existence. Step 2 is to acknowledge the huge potential damage that could have been done to the brand if this $50 auction had gone to completion. I don't know if Step 3 is a good idea. It involves repeating the words over and over "I promise to be a better consumer and give retail giants the unquestioning loyalty and restect that they so richly deserve." I am afraid that I might choke on my own vomit. The other 8 steps are of a similar nature and I won't bore you with them. The auction will be properly sanitized and reposted today.

[amertrac]

I GUESS IT'S HOW YOU SAY IT

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271242854522?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1586.l2649

[rusty]

> I think that I was using the trademarked term much the way that any brand of facial tissue is referred to as Kleenex in conversation.

You did, and since you identified the actual manufacturer, and used the minimal amount of the trademark name to specify what you were talking about, you likely fall under fair use exemptions.

You are also probably covered under casual use, since you are not in the tool selling business, and the monitary damage is so small a court wouldn't even bother hearing it. (In fact, it might even be sanctioned for frivilous action, the profit lost is probably $8)

Add to that the fact that DCMA doesn't even cover trademarks, and the whole thing is a total farce.

But ebay has no balls, and who wants to spend thousands on legal fees proving a pointless point....*sigh*

[Bus]

The way I understand it is that companies need to protect their trademarks to keep them from becoming a generic name for that type of product or they lose their trademark. I would think that Crescent lost that battle years ago.

In my wrench auctioncatalog descriptions I use "Crescent type", "Coes type", etc.  a lot. If I see "adjustable wrench" in a description I have no ideal what they are trying to describe as there are thousands of adjustable wrench types. If I see "Crescent wrench type" or Coes type" I immediately know what the wrench looks like. I wonder if i will ever get flack over this?

[johnsironsanctuary]

Bus, I understand that your beheading is scheduled for Tuesday morning at sunrise. Sorry. 

You are absolutely correct in your reasoning and you use the term in your auction catalogs for the same reason that I used it in the Ebay auction. Adjustable wrench is far too generic to describe the item.  I suspect that some entrepreneur sold Apex a service to screen ebay. Word search software would do it. Maybe Oily Rascal should weigh in on this one.

[rustcollector]

Just don't use "type" in the title on ebay. I highly doubt anybody uses the word in their search for wrenches, as least not to any extreme. I also doubt the powers that be are going to look at every description on every crescent style wrench on ebay, they are just looking at titles trying to find crap they can be stupid about. If you have "crescent type" in the description and not the title, you are still covered if the buyer doesn't realize it is not crescent brand.

Bob, your wrenches are crescent brand, so there would be no problem with that one.

And yes, I realize crescent should be capitalized when I talk about it as a company, but I'm with John, I've lost all respect for them with doing that sort of garbage, so they are a lower case C to me now.

[rustcollector]

A good test of that would be this one I just saw.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-Vintage-Old-New-Lot-1970-retro-KEYRINGS-KEYCHAINS-Adjustable-Crescent-Wrench-/151085995033?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item232d6d5419