Hunton Retail Law Resource

A longer version of this blog post originally appeared as an article in Retail TouchPoints: Policing Your Brand on Online Marketplaces: an Intellectual Property Guide for Retailers. Further duplication is not permitted.

Retailers often face brand policing challenges on online resale platforms such as Wayfair, Overstock.com, and eBay. Resellers account for a significant portion of retail sales on these websites. Resellers tend to be small to midsize entities but are nevertheless able to reach a large number of US consumers. It’s thus unsurprising that problems arise daily, often relating to brand owners’ dissatisfaction with the third-party resellers and their sales practices.

Branding is central to the sale of products and services for many retailers. In a case involving a whiskey bottle dog toy with important findings for retailers and brand protection, the Supreme Court vacated the Ninth Circuit’s rulings on trademark infringement and trademark dilution in Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC.