(Interlectual Property Rights) Solicitors Letter - Trademark - Ebay

[mbhb08]

Hi again I have one major concern. If they want a list of address etc and you have sold alot of items If you do not declare the address of the one they have in hand they will be suspicious. I don't think they can determine how many you sold, they would have to have been watching all GHD items sold, and monitor feedback. As I keep feedback private and also sell other products it would be very difficult.

Has anyone had legal advice yet?

I beleive there must be an argument that as a buyer we bought these as Genuine. Therefore the seller should be held responsible.

 

[skylark]

hi,

Basically all who have not sorted this out yet i suggest you ring them or write to them and find out exactly how much they want and then pay them.
I sorted mine out by sending them a cheque.
You can always try and argue that you bought them in good faith but at the end of the day you sold dodgy goods and as far as the law is concerned being naive or ignorant is no excuse. The way that the system works is you then have to sue your supplier and as many of these suppliers are in china youve generally got no hope.
Also they know how many you have sold weather it be from monitoring your ebay activity or by getting the info direct from ebay (read ebays privacy policy , your in for a shock). Technically ebay are acting illegally(data protection act) as they are willing to give your info over to vero members. Whos got the money to sue ebay ?
Unfortuantly for everyone whos sold these on ebay(me included) there is a digital paper trail from your supplier to your customer and all payments sent and taken can be traced.
I must admit i didnt like sending that cheque but if we had all looked into these ghd iron things a bit better then maybe we would of realised the money to be made was too good to be true.

lesson learnt , arse spanked.

good luck to all.....

 

[mbhb08]

Hi

did they tell you exactly how many you had sold or did you tell them only I don't want to get trapped. Did they tell you how much you where required to pay or did they ask for invoices etc?

thanks

 

[on1980]

Hi

I received a call this morning from walker morris regarding the conversations we are having on this forum one of their staff recognised my id here from my e bay username. To be honest with you all the person dealing with the issues at walker morris is being a descent guy and trying to help us who bought the items in good faith too. It was explained to me that they are taking us all down the easy route to finalise eash case where possible. After thinking that maybe we will be hung out to dry i am now thinking that ill spend this weekend preparing my details to get them correct and then will make contact with walker morris early next week to put my case to bed. Ill keep you all posted.

A second thing that people are questioning in which where they have got our sales records from, the answer is this: when we initially sign up to e bay the user agreements we accept basically give the permission for 3rd parties (trademark holders etc) to acces our details if we are doing something wrong i.e selling items beleived to be non genuine.

Also there is now 1200 cases open on this subject with walker morris

I intend to close mine next week

 

[skylark]

Hi,

I told the truth and owned up to how many i sold and what i sold them for and what my profit was so that they wouldnt build up more legal costs in finding out for themself and writing more letters.
I sent them a cheque voluntarily for the amount i had made plus their legal costs. I also gave them the suppliers details.
I did tell them the info they wanted but i am aware of people who have been told what they had sold as they got the info from elsewhere.

My Advice is bite the bullet, be honest and pay up. It will probably save alot of hassle and worry.

regards

 

[MrBig1]

Hello I have contacted Walker Morris they should tell you how many you have sold. If GHD is watching then I don't know why they can't post a response. At the end of the day most if not all the people on here had good intentions when selling the GHD's. Also I presume most of us had been told they where genuine. THEY SHOULD BE GETTING THE MANUFACTURES!!!

Also I do argue the point that GHD have a monoploy on eBay, they discount items to one or two selected sellers (whom may be afiliates of GHD). If they didn't restrict this then they wouldn't have had such a problem.

The people as the soliciters are friendly and if you cooperate I'm sure they will try to reduce the damages on you're behalf.

 

[on1980]

You are right there they do seem to want to work with us and take us through the "easy route" to finalise the matters. They did explane the harder route and to be honest i would sooner work with them and settle it the easier lighter way than have to sort it in court as i dont get the impression they are going to be backing down on anyone.

Anyone else sorted their cases yet? be interesting to know details

 

[meanmachine29]

Well I have spoken to Walker Morris and intend on cooperating fully, Although my suplier has dissapeared of the face of the earth which is frustrating! also I had to pay a lot of refunds cash as I delivered myself and had to collect, another thing is when your account is empty you can not refund so we sent money via paypal as refunds.
I do think GHD should have done more to protect Us, If GHD were monitoring us ,shorely they are at just as much fault when a short email to me stating what I was selling was not a genuine product would have stoped me straight away.
Im not trying to put the blame back (well just a bit) as what we were doing (albeit unknowingly) was wrong. Im out of pocket already with all this and having to pay compensation and legal fee's is going to mean beans on toast for my kids for the next 10 years.
by the way Chris, you can ring me any time from today.

 

[kn95]

Hi Folks

Cooperation is the best method for you all, take the hit and pay what you have to.

Cooperate with chris fully and you will have it sorted in no time, give him a ring (he doesnt bite), hes a decent bloke only doing his job.

Be truthfull, send all the info thats required and sign the form, thats what i did and it worked out spot on.

Costs will only increase if you fail to provide the information they are after.

Pay up, settle the case and put this behind you, less worry and more sleep

Kn95

 

[meanmachine29]

Hi Folks

Cooperation is the best method for you all, take the hit and pay what you have to.

Cooperate with chris fully and you will have it sorted in no time, give him a ring (he doesnt bite), hes a decent bloke only doing his job.

Be truthfull, send all the info thats required and sign the form, thats what i did and it worked out spot on.

Costs will only increase if you fail to provide the information they are after.

Pay up, settle the case and put this behind you, less worry and more sleep

Kn95

KN95.
You have given some good advice and seem to have been throught the mill like the rest of us, please give us more details on your dealings with walker morris and GHD.

 

[kn95]

Meanmachine

What do you mean, what extra details are you after thats not mentioned in this ever growing thread.

Kn95

 

[on1980]

Case sorted

Hi All

sorted my case too today. Got my true figures done to the penny over the weekend and gave them at Walker Morris a call at lunch where we struck a deal. Well worth it and a huge weight of my shoulders. Like kn95 says

 

[on1980]

Follow up:

Day after i struck my deal i received the letter from walker morris. Signed the original paperwork they sent to me and returned it to them with the payment to Jamella inc my documents (sales figures, profits, costs,refunds etc).

In todays post i have just had a reply from Walker Morris to confirm that the case is now closed subject to my cheques clearing which wont be a problem.

Not the best experience of my life but all sorted now. Thgey are descent people and yeah i wondered if i was being stitched up but no they are good people and are working with us to close the cases so if you want your cases closed just work with them.

anyway a big thanks to everyone here, been a great help and helped me put my situation to bed.

Hope everyone gets sorted and no one has to go through anything like this again

 

[lianasb]

not so innocent

A friend of mine has had all the hassle of these letters from That solicitor She bought 9 sets and kept one for herself,believing them to be genuine. She checked the How to spot a fake on Ebay and hers passed with flying colours.next thing she knew E bay had removed her ad under the vero rule.She answered the 1st letter telling them she had sold less than 10 and had none left and wouldnt be trading in them again,but she recently got a letter demanding to know if she had refunded any and wanting proof. they also quoted her e bay username and how many she had sold.E bay are still taking ads for 100's of these and there are still websites advertising them .My friend is a single parent and had borrowed the money from her sister to buy them. She borrowed more and made payments through Paypal to all the people who had bought them and now she is seriously out of pocket.
However,I have just read an article where Jemella got fined £4500 for selling dangerous good as 2 sets of their straighteners had gone on fire This was settled in Jan 2006 and they also had to pay trading standards £35,705 costs
So much for saying the fake ones are dangerous Not so sqeaky clean them selves are they?

 

[lianasb]

A friend of mine has had all the hassle of these letters from That solicitor She bought 9 sets and kept one for herself,believing them to be genuine. She checked the How to spot a fake on Ebay and hers passed with flying colours.next thing she knew E bay had removed her ad under the vero rule.She answered the 1st letter telling them she had sold less than 10 and had none left and wouldnt be trading in them again,but she recently got a letter demanding to know if she had refunded any and wanting proof. they also quoted her e bay username and how many she had sold.E bay are still taking ads for 100's of these and there are still websites advertising them .My friend is a single parent and had borrowed the money from her sister to buy them. She borrowed more and made payments through Paypal to all the people who had bought them and now she is seriously out of pocket.

 

[MissusG]

Jemella Ltd_GHD

Today (30th May) I received this letter from Walker Morris (not signed by any particular partner)!! My case is slightly different though in that I never had in my possession, bought or sold any of these hair straigtheners. In fact I have never even heard of them! I have had no relationship at any time with a buyer either. I did however receive an email from eBay in March advising me that a "third party had gained unauthorised access to my email account" and the account had been temporarily suspended. When I eventually did get back in there, I found that this "third party" had been offering and attempting to sell these GHD hair straighteners. Anyway, I thought that was the end of it until I got this letter today. The letter was accusatory in tone and has left little scope for defence on my part. They have basically accused me of theft and infringement of copyright and trademark legislation. I have been advised not to sign anything nor pay anything to this law firm. In fact the tone of the letter has left me feeling that my good character has been defamed..you'd think a solicitor would know about the Libel & Slander.
Anyway the only person(s) who could have divulged my details to this law firm was eBay...which leaves me wondering, if they could do that much, why didn't they tell Walker Morris that my account had been unlawfully hacked into and I was unaware of what was going on.
Us little people need to stand up together against these bully boys...we have rights. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[dante786]

Hi there i got a letter from Walker and Morris today too !

They want me to pay their fee of £350 plus damages ! and i never even sold 1 straightener ! NOT EVEN 1

i bought one from a Sunday market and listed it on e bay right and e bay removed in 7 minutes after me putting it on at like 3 am (in the morning) i thought maybe its because the computer crashed etc so i re list it and again 10 minutes later i come back and its gone so i e maill ebay asking why they removed my item and provided me with GHD's e mail address right so i email jamllia and they told me it was fake i was like ok are you sure and i provided them with the serial number my e bay listing and e bay user name right with the full intention of finding out the authenticity of my GHD, they said it was fake i was like ok then i wont sell them. I MADE NO FURTHER ATTEMPT TO SELL THEM gave them to my girl friend and they broke she threw them away (about 2 months ago) and today i get this letter asking for money !

First off all i never even sold 1 GHD fake, 2 i gave them my details and asked them about it, and 3 why should i pay £350 for something that i had no waring about ?

Ile give them a call on monday and see what they can do because i am sure this is a mistake.

They cant do this because and i refuse to pay being a very poor student ! I cant afford £350 let alone i live on a can of beans a day ! I never gave into bullys and i wont let them bully £350 out of me !

Anyone tried to fight these bully's yet ?

Seriously what the hell i didn't even sell one !

 

[No_Chance_Pal]

Today (30th May) I received this letter from Walker Morris (not signed by any particular partner)!! My case is slightly different though in that I never had in my possession, bought or sold any of these hair straigtheners. In fact I have never even heard of them! I have had no relationship at any time with a buyer either. I did however receive an email from eBay in March advising me that a "third party had gained unauthorised access to my email account" and the account had been temporarily suspended. When I eventually did get back in there, I found that this "third party" had been offering and attempting to sell these GHD hair straighteners. Anyway, I thought that was the end of it until I got this letter today. The letter was accusatory in tone and has left little scope for defence on my part. They have basically accused me of theft and infringement of copyright and trademark legislation. I have been advised not to sign anything nor pay anything to this law firm. In fact the tone of the letter has left me feeling that my good character has been defamed..you'd think a solicitor would know about the Libel & Slander.
Anyway the only person(s) who could have divulged my details to this law firm was eBay...which leaves me wondering, if they could do that much, why didn't they tell Walker Morris that my account had been unlawfully hacked into and I was unaware of what was going on.
Us little people need to stand up together against these bully boys...we have rights. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I have the same story to tell as you MissusG. Hacked ebay account...... goods added to my account, then deleted by ebay. No one mentioned solicitors or being taken to court, just change your password and it'll all be ok. They even refunded the listing costs charge to my account so they know it's a hacker that did it.

Walker Morris can go and F@?* themselves if they think I'm paying £350 for damages to a company I've never even heard of until they got in touch.

I'll be getting in touch with the police if this isn't dropped sooner rather than later. In fact it all sounds very suspect that someone hacks into my account to sell dodgy items then I get a letter from WM asking for money. They need to be carefully they aren't dragged into this as the only party with something to gain from this. They haven't got a leg to stand on.

I'll be reading through the comments on this thread at lunch in the hope that someone has some positive outcomes.

PS if you work for WM then I've not used the same user id as my ebay so I'll save you tryin to find me in amongst your pile of case files, but if you have any sense then you'll check you facts with ebay first before threatening innocent people with legal action. Call yourselves professionals....? X my arse.

 

[Fortuna]

Don't Panic.

Hi,
I am dealing on behalf of some people in the same position as some of you.
I'm an active member of the consumer action group. You may have heard of us when dealing with bank claims and other consumer issues.

First thing I would say about this matter is that if you bought legitimate items you should not pay them a penny.
It has come to my attention that something is not right about the demands and pressure being put on individuals to part with money for costs despite no court action happening. Costs are usually awarded by a judge.
Also there may be a breach of the Data Protection Act. UK common law overides any contract law and the DPA 1998 is a well founded law.
In most cases they demand compensation with little to no proof of copyright infringement. They actually sent us pictures that are not the ones listed.
People who bought these items legit are somewhat bemused.
I know they read here as they do the website of the group I belong to.

As a last thought, we helped a few people when their irons broke and GHD would not honor the lifetime gauruntee and in fact tried to sell new irons back to them at a reduced price!!! This was resolved to a degree.
If I was to tell you that Jemella was fined £4500 and £35000 for selling faulty irons I would begin to question the ethics behind all this.

I will keep you all posted, just keep writing back if you are innocent.

 

[Fortuna]

Here is an extract of when they were fined.

Date: 17 May 2006
A Yorkshire based company whose haircare products are widely used in professional salons appeared before Cirencester Magistrates Court this week to face charges of supplying electrical products which were unsafe.

Jemella Ltd. of Bradford, West Yorkshire, the company behind the ghd ("good hair day") brand, pleaded guilty on 15 May to two offences of selling ceramic hair straightening irons which failed to comply with strict safety laws intended to protect consumers from the hazards of electrocution.

The prosecution brought by Gloucestershire County Council Trading Standards Service followed a complaint made by a Gloucester resident in January 2003 who had been alarmed to see flames and sparks coming from the product after the power cord failed.

As a result of the complaint, the Trading Standards Service commissioned an expert electrical safety report on the consumer's irons and two pairs of irons it subsequently purchased. In all three cases the experts reported that the irons failed to comply with the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations.

The product, which retails for around £90 and is only sold over the internet and through salons, is imported into the UK by Jemella from Korea.

The Trading Standards Service brought proceedings in January 2004 but for two years the company mounted a legal challenge to the case. It was only on the first day of what was to be a five-day trial before Cirencester Magistrates Court that the company finally accepted that their product breached safety standards.

In passing sentence, Deputy District Judge Champion remarked that the case involved potentially serious breaches of safety standards which could give rise to a serious hazard for the user and that the company must have been aware of the problems. He also remarked that Jemella had fought the case at every corner when prosecution expert reports clearly showed a breach of the law. Judge Champion fined the company £2,250 on each of the two charges and took the unusual step of requiring Jemella to pay the Trading Standards Service its full prosecution costs of £35,705.

Roger Marles, Head of Trading Standards, said: 'This service takes complaints about electrical safety extremely seriously. Where the circumstances require it, we will prosecute companies that flout the law. In this case, there was substantial evidence of a breach of safety legislation. These were very expensive items and consumers should quite rightly expect the products they buy to be safe.'