How to Use Registered Designs to Beat Online Copycats
Copycats can appear on online marketplaces within days of a successful product launch. Often, it is the exact same product, or a barely altered version, listed at a fraction of your price.
The good news? A registered design is one of the most effective and least expensive tools for getting them removed. If you have protected the appearance of your product with a registered design, you usually do not have to go to court to deal with online fakes. Instead, you can use the marketplaces' own takedown systems, and a registered design is perfectly suited to them.
Why a registered design works so well online
Three features make a registered design the ideal tool for marketplace enforcement:
It is a registered right: You have an official certificate and a registration number that the platform can easily verify.
It provides a monopoly: You do not have to prove that the seller actually copied you. You only need to show that their product produces the same "overall impression" as your design.
It is visual: Crucially, your registration is a picture. A marketplace reviewer can simply hold your registered representation next to the offending listing and see the infringement at a glance. This is rarely true for complex patents.
Using marketplace takedown systems
Every major platform has its own intellectual property reporting route, and the processes are not identical, so it pays to know what each one expects.
On Amazon, there are two routes. Any rights owner (or their authorised agent) can use the public Report Infringement form. Separately, brands enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry can use its Report a Violation (RAV) tool, which lets you search listings and report them in bulk. Either way, you select the type of right, give your registered design number, list the ASIN of each infringing product, explain briefly why it produces the same overall impression as your design, and confirm that you are complaining in good faith.
On eBay, reporting is handled through the Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) programme. You enrol as a rights owner, provide evidence of ownership such as your registration certificate, and submit a Notice of Claimed Infringement. In it you identify each listing by its item number, choose a reason code, and sign a declaration that the complaint is accurate and that you are authorised to make it.
Other marketplaces run their own online forms, but the ingredients are much the same: proof that you are the rights owner, your registration details, the specific listings, and a statement of why they infringe. Typically, only the rights owner or an authorised agent can file, and a clear side-by-side comparison of your registered representation against the listing is what makes a report easy for the platform to action. For a straightforward copy this route is dramatically cheaper and faster than going to court, and it will often resolve the problem outright.
File as early as possible
Unscrupulous copycats will file registered designs for your products if you do not. They can even use their registered designs to submit takedown notices for your products. Filing for registered design protection before you launch, avoids this by giving you early rights that would predate any later copycat design filings.
Mark your products
Enforcement is always easier if you signpost your rights in advance. Marking your product, packaging, and listings with "UK Registered Design No. [Your Number]" deters would-be copyists and lends credibility to your takedown requests. It also puts sellers on notice that the design is registered, which matters because deliberately copying a registered design can itself be a criminal offence in the UK.
The trap to avoid: unjustified threats
There is one important pitfall to be aware of. Under the Intellectual Property (Unjustified Threats) Act 2017, you can be sued for making a groundless threat of infringement proceedings, and a marketplace takedown request can count as one. The Court of Appeal confirmed this in NOCO v Shenzhen Carku ([2023] EWCA Civ 1502), where complaints made through Amazon's IP form were held to be actionable threats.
As a general rule, when you report a listing, stick to neutral, factual information (who you are, the registered design you hold, and the listing you believe is affected), and avoid adding assertions of infringement or demands that the item be removed. And because a threat only exposes you if it proves to be unjustified, it is worth taking a view on the strength of your design and the infringement before you report a listing. If in any doubt, take advice first.
When the copycat fights back
Occasionally, a seller will file a counter-notice, and a platform may reinstate their listing while the dispute is assessed. If this happens, you may need to escalate the issue, typically to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC), which is specifically designed for proportionate, lower-cost IP disputes. A seller may also try to knock out your right by challenging its validity.
Need help clearing copycats?
If you are seeing copies of your product online and want them dealt with quickly and correctly, get in touch for a free consultation.
