Are you seeing a ton of people selling Disney or other trademarked items on Etsy and you’re like, “If everyone else is doing it, why can’t I do it too!?” Then THIS is for you! Because I want to tell you about my personal experience about selling trademarked items and Why You Shouldn’t sell Copyrighted or Trademarked Items on Etsy.
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So many people are already doing it!
The reason it’s hard isn’t because you aren’t sure if it’s wrong to sell invitations with the little mermaid on them, or a tote bag with a Taylor Swift song lyrics on it… and if you didn’t know, well now you do. The problem is truly because you see so many other people doing it, that it makes you think that you can do it too.
Amiright?
So I want to tell you a quick story about my experience so that you can say NO to copyrighted and trademarked items in your Etsy shop.
My Story of Why You Shouldn’t sell Copyrighted or Trademarked Items on Etsy
It all started when I used to make handmade party decorations on Etsy. And I had a customer reach out to me to do a custom party theme. I loved to do this in my business. It felt great to make something very specific that they couldn’t find anywhere else online. That was my sweet spot. And I had a blast doing it. So what I would do back then was ask them what they needed for their party, create it all and then pack it and ship it to their house. We’re talking signs, banners, thank you cards, invitations, favor tags, and all the things you need to have a party with a cohesive theme.
I am technically not allowed to tell you what theme this particular party was in. However, let’s just say it’s a children’s television show that we are all very familiar with.
When I switched to digital products, it made sense to also sell this top-selling party. That way, more customers could benefit from cheaper items that they could print out themselves. So, I had a ton of printables available in my Etsy shop in this theme. As I said, it was a top selling product, and it made me happy that I could give my customers what they needed for their special days.
The Repercussions of Why You Shouldn’t sell Copyrighted or Trademarked Items on Etsy
Fast forward to the pandemic, when sales were down because people weren’t celebrating their events in person, so there wasn’t much of a need for party decorations. Additionally, my husband just got laid off. This was was a big problem because we were in the middle of selling our house. And because of the layoff, we had to back out of the sale. It enthralled us in a huge legal battle with our realtor. All that to say, I WAS STRESSED! And literally, the day after my husband was laid off, I got a very unpleasant email. It was from the legal group that represented the theme of my party.
They demanded that I cease and desist selling any and all items in my Etsy shop and on my website, that I take down ALL social media posts and blog articles related to said theme. And then most importantly, they demanded to see a spreadsheet of all the money I had made on these products EVER. After I shakily sent them the information they demanded that I pay them every last penny of what I had made over the years. Every last penny.
Why It’s Not Worth it to Sell Copyrighted or Trademarked Items on Etsy
That was NOT fun. I truly felt like an idiot and I now understood why people warn against doing such a thing on Etsy. SO i guess what I want to make clear here is that in some cases, yes, you might get a wrist- slapping. They may tell you to deactivate your listing, or do it for you. It might just be a warning email from Etsy telling you that you need to take the listing down. Or, it may be a full blown legal situation. In that case, you’ll have to pay all the money back that you’ve made on the items. Now that you know that the latter is a possibility, why would you even go there? So you might make millions, and then have to pay it all back? That doesn’t seem to be a good payoff.
Now I will say that the problem for me could be that I am very active on social media, I have over a million monthly views on Pinterest and a lot of traffic coming to my blog, so I’m relatively sure that my good (however novice) marketing had something to do with the fact that they found me and took me down. This made it even more tricky because I had to track down all the Pinterest pins and social media posts I ever made and attempt to delete them. So not only was this a costly endeavor, it was also rather time consuming.
Don’t Sell Copyrighted or Trademarked Items on Etsy
But even if you don’t have those things, and you’re not active on social or on Pinterest, would you want to risk it? I say no. And remember, this is only my experience, so who knows how other companies would handle it. I certainly don’t want to head to court over any of this or get into any serious legal trouble. It is JUST not worth it.
Did I mention that this wasn’t the last time I had a run-in with copyrighted items? Well, a few years later I got dinged again in my Etsy shop. You;d think I’d learned my lesson, but as a lay person who really thought I was following the rules, it happened again. Not as intense this time, but scary none the less.
The point is, my Etsy shop is about a smidge away from getting taken down with any other infractions. Needless to say, I now try to be really careful about what I decide to sell. And that’s why in my signature program, the abundant Girl’s guide to passive income with printables on Etsy, we go over the rules and how to make sure that you’re in compliance. But lets be honest, IE’m human and it is possible that I could make more mistakes in the future. But these are the lessons that we’re here to learn, and unfortunately, some of us need a great big boulder when a little pebble isn’t going to do the trick. Do you know what I mean?
Therefore, don’t sell anything that’s copyrighted or trademarked. Do your research and you should be good to go.
Want to Make Passive Income With Printables the Right Way?
Are you someone who’s been thinking about selling printables on Etsy, but you need ideas about what to sell? Why not use chat GPT? GPT is overused right now – I get it!. However, there are ways that you can use it to your advantage. And I walk you through exactly how to do that in my free guide: 3 steps to using AI to come up with printable ideas.
I hope this gives you a little insight into what has happened to me. Want to hear my other story about when I got caught my a giant entertainment conglomerate? Tell me below in the comments I’ll talk about it in upcoming video or blog.
xoxo, Lindsay
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