Protecting Intellectual Property

In keeping with its status as the Internet's largest venue for person-to-person trading, eBay does not and cannot verify that sellers have the right or ability to sell or distribute their listed items. However, we are committed to removing infringing or unlicensed items once an authorised representative of the rights owner properly reports them to us. eBay's Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Programme works to ensure that item listings do not infringe upon the copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights of third parties. VeRO Programme participants have the ability to identify and request removal of allegedly infringing items and materials

Any person or company who holds intellectual property rights (such as a copyright, trademark or patent) which may be infringed upon by eBay postings or items listed on eBay is encouraged to become a VeRO Programme member. Programme members presently include hundreds of individuals, local law enforcement, and intellectual property owners from a wide array of industries.

Programme membership entitles you to the following benefits:

• Dedicated eBay staff to assist you in getting the most out of the Programme

• Rapid response by eBay in ending auctions reported by you as allegedly infringing

• Dedicated priority email queues for reporting alleged infringements

• The ability to obtain identifying information about eBay users

• eBay member rights and privileges as described in the eBay User Agreement and Privacy Policy

• Automatic updates on new benefits available under the Programme

How to Become a VeRO Programme Member

To join the VeRO Programme, we require only that you fully complete and fax to us a Notice of Infringement form specifying the allegedly infringing listings and the infringed work, complete with an original authorised signature. The information requested by the Notice of Infringement is designed to ensure that parties reporting items are authorised by the rights owners, and to enable eBay to easily identify the material or listing to be ended. You will need Adobe Reader to view and print these documents. In the interest of keeping the process easy and simple, after we receive your first Notice of Infringement in hard copy, future notices can be sent to us by email.

Automated Searches

eBay offers to all members a feature called Favourite Searches. You can use our Favourite Searches feature to conduct automatic searches for potentially infringing items. Favourite Searches enables you to create up to fifteen automatic searches using search terms you provide. You can designate three of these searches to be automatically emailed to you. Our system will automatically notify you on a daily basis of any new listings posted which contain any terms in your three selected searches. You can use sophisticated Boolean logic searches just like with our main search engine. The easiest way to set up this feature is to perform a search using eBay's main search engine, and then clicking "save this search" at the bottom of the search results. You'll need to be a member of eBay to use Favourite Searches.

How to Report Listings if you are the Intellectual Property Owner

If you are a community member, and another member is using your text and/or images in their listings without your permission, you can now report their listings to eBay by following our descriptions and image guidelines.

How to Report Items if You are Not an Intellectual Property Owner

If you are not an intellectual property owner, you will not be able to join our VeRO Programme. However, you can still help by getting in touch with the relevant rights owner and encouraging them to contact us. Also, if you want to report suspected infringing items to eBay, contact us. We are happy to receive such information, but must advise that we may be limited in our ability to respond to your request without a formal notice from an authorised rights owner.

For more information:

• If you are an IP rights owner and have questions about the VeRO Programme or our infringing items policies, please contact us (please select Listing Violations).

• If you are a seller with a listing that has been ended, visit the Prohibited, Questionable, and Infringing items page.