Many GCA members have seen their cards being sold without permission on some online market places, particularly TEMU. This issue has been covered by PGBuzz , the BBC and across the media,
As part of the GCA’s work to protect our industry we have been in discussions with GCA members who are affected, government ministers, the Intellectual Property Office and TEMU themselves:
GCA Action and Advice:
The GCA met with both the IPO and TEMU executives in February, highlighting the issues and working to protect our industry.
The meeting was attended by GCA CEO Amanda Fergusson, GCA council member Brett Smith, co-owner of Emotional Rescue, and led by Pip Heywood, MD of Thortful and GCA member. Also attending were two members of the government IPO team and 3 senior executives from TEMU . The meeting addressed the widespread copyright infringement of UK greeting card designs on the TEMU platform, focusing on the challenges of design volume, subtle infringements evading detection, and repeat offenders. The GCA highlighted both the significant loss of revenue to GCA members and also the time taken to find and remove images. TEMU representatives outlined their IP protection program, including proactive monitoring and reactive takedown processes. TEMU stressed that they are keen to help designers protect their IP rights, they are investing more in this area and are suggesting other solutions for combating this issue; discussions are continuing.
This meeting followed a presentation by TEMU at the Spring Fair in early February where GCA CEO Amanda Fergusson was the first to speak out, “TEMU need to address the issues of widespread plagiarism where GCA members designs are being blatantly copied and sold by 3rd party sellers….Getting the designs taken off is like ‘whack a mole’, with greeting card publishers spending a significant amount of time working to get the copies of their cards off the platform, only for them to spring up again under another sellers name….” said Amanda
The GCA is also highlighting this issue to government. There is Guidance for Protecting Intellectual Property Rights on e-commerce stores on gov.uk, with links through to report infringements.
Thortful have also published a blog with useful advice to publishers selling through their website.
McDaniels Law team (pictured), specialist Intellectual Property Solicitors and Trade Mark Attorneys, and GCA supplier members, have also taken up the issue with TEMU on behalf of the industry: MD, Kelly Hudson, met with some of the affected publishers and McDaniels have produced the attached TEMU Takedown Guide for Copyright Infringement for GCA Members who see their designs appearing on the website.
Members are now reporting that the infringing listings they have reported are now being swiftly removed.
If you are affected by these issues do use download the guide below.
Downloads
