![]() ![]() “There was a particular Canadian influencer that wore their actual sweater, but then drove traffic to another store that carried the knockoff,” Sekandi says. Sekandi says that the brand let her and Ward know that this was an issue when they first started carrying the sweaters in 2018, telling the women that the team at Mum’s Handmade had been reporting knockoffs to Instagram for the past two years. (An original sweater costs $299 on From Jess and Jules, and €240 from Mum’s Handmade directly the knockoff at Goodnight Macaroon is US$95.) Along with being advertised to social-media users, influencers have been peddling the knockoffs, linking to the discount retailers, even when they cite the original designer as Mum’s Handmade in their blog posts. Their chunky knit pullovers and cardigans have been knocked off and can be found at online stores such as Goodnight Macaroon. They carry sweaters from Mum’s Handmade, a small hand-knitting business based in Thessaloniki, Greece. Jessica Ward and Juliet Sekandi run From Jess and Jules, a Toronto-based online lifestyle boutique. The problem extends beyond advertising from these dropshipping companies, however. ![]() And then I would file another notice, it would pop up on still another and another until I was like, I don’t know how much time I can keep dedicating to hunting these out,” she says. “I would file one takedown notice and then it would pop up on another site. “I think the rule is something like two to three variables have to be different or adjusted, so it could be your exact same design but it’s in a different fabric and a different colour and maybe the hem is one inch different.”īecause in her IP complaints to Shopify, which most of the stores use to operate, and Instagram, she would link to the original photo, the item would be immediately deleted from sites.īut Bennett suspects Orderplus and the like anticipate being caught out and have storefronts on standby to go live when others are shut down. “It is extremely challenging to prove ownership of a style,” she adds. “They stole the photograph of the actual dress, and that made it easier to pursue as intellectual property,” Bennett says. On its storefronts, Orderplus is using a photograph of the dress that is the property of one of Bennett’s stockists. Micoko, Yoyolike, HahaDress and Luvyle are all storefronts managed and fulfilled by Orderplus and each serve up ads to Instagram users. Dig a little deeper and many of the stores selling women’s and men’s apparel, including the dress I was looking at, belong to Orderplus International Ltd., a company based in Hong Kong. Indeed, along with “About Us” and “Contact” pages on their websites, most of these storefronts have a page titled “Intellectual Property” where copyright owners can file a grievance in hopes that the offending material stops being shared, whether it be a design, photograph or product description. They anticipate the intellectual-property takedown.” “The bizarre thing is that they have this network of alias storefronts that are ready to go. ![]() “It’s very new to me, this form of being knocked off,” says Bennett, who first started to learn about copycats of her dresses being sold through these shops in March of this year. While brands such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton have markers – specific tells on their items that shoppers can look for to guarantee authenticity – and healthy legal funds to combat counterfeits, independent designers such as Bennett do not. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |