Ebay Copy right

[random198547]

Hi.

just curious, (not sure which forum to post in)

I run a facebook group in my local town which over the years has become popular between members, from private buyers to sole traders, we had some nice admins who run the site very well, ban items such as animals and guns and for not,

however until 2 days ago , i had this email:

************************************************** ***********************************************

Hello,

We removed or disabled access to the following content you posted on Facebook because a third party reported that the content violates their trademark rights:

Group: FaceBay Macclesfield (Buy&Sell)

If you believe this content shouldn't have been removed from Facebook, you can contact the complaining party directly to resolve your issue:

Report no.: 1265816896932642
Rights owner: eBay Inc.
Email: alfred.ics@ebay.com
Trademark: EBAY

If an agreement is reached to restore the reported content, please have the complaining party email us with their consent and include the report number. Alternatively, if you believe the content should not have been removed and wish to contact Facebook, you can contact us by filling in this form:

************************************************** ****************************************

At first i thought it was some content inside the group, but no they have removed the group, So must be the name? surely a name with Bay init is not Copyright?
i have email Facebook and awaiting there reply and ebay, if they will ever respond, who knows, just curious how a firm can be so petty, shame as we had over 15,000 members and done quite alot of the years for awareness of the town and supported charity events,

Regards

Simon.

[Shikariunite]

Yeah. The same thing happened to a group I moderate.
32k members and includes the name "facebay"
eBay did respond to my first email saying that if we were to change the name they'd be happy to reinstate the page but no word since then.

Pretty annoying.

[R0b]

Copyright and trademarks are not the same thing - you should google it.

Using "FaceBay" as a title of the group looks suspicious and you would need to explain why or how you came up with that name, instead of simply saying "Macclesfield (Buy&Sell)". The fact that you also use the capitalised "B" in FaceBay also adds weight as it's a similar style to the trademark eBay not to mention that the group is used for buying and selling which again is in competition with the eBay platform.

I'm not an IP expert but at a high level, here's the test for trademark infringement.

• The use is in the course of trade
• The use is in relation to goods and services.
• There is no consent from the trade mark proprietor.
• The use affects, or is liable to affect, the functions of the trade mark.

Whether a facebook group offering buy and sell is considered to be in the course of trade I am not so sure, but that's an argument you have to make. 'in the course of trade' is considered to be for commercial gain rather than a private matter.

You might be better off simply offering to change the name to get it swiftly back up.

[jaguarsuk]

I think I would just write back stating you wish to change the name to whatever else and then contact Facebook asking them to change the name to that, then reinstate the page.

You know you named the page FaceBay as a cross between Facebook and eBay, you have gotten away with it for a while it seems and now you just have to change it. eBay are shirty about it because if you sell things between you on facebook there's no need for them, I very much doubt closing your group has lead to a spike in listing in Macclesfield though, but that's big corporations for you.