Does the owner of Creative Memories(tm) read this board?

Okay, here's the lowdown. I have gotten pretty good with photoshop and have created several of my own images without using any scrapbooking elements, only by using photoshop and its filters and other plug-ins that I own. I decided to give a go and put up a few of my designs on ebay to give it a go at selling them. I have gotten very positive responses and even sold a couple. I GUARANTEE you that I have not infringed any copyrights or stolen anyone's work from this site or any other. I guarantee that whatever was created in the prints shown in that auction was created purely 100% by me.

This morning, I got an email from ebay notifying me that my auction was removed due to copyright infringement. Since everything I've done is MINE and no one elses, I couldn't understand what could've been construed as being stolen. Well, Creative Memories (tm) was the one who caused it to be removed. Why, you ask? Because of the title, it HAS to be. My listing was titled "Creative Custom Personalized Memories Collage Print".

What part of my auction title would be considered as copyright infringment? Because it contains the words "creative" and "memories" is my only guess. PLEASE give me a break. No one owns those two individual words. They aren't even together in the sentence, for crying out loud! I didn't even know this company existed until today. So now, if I try and relist another auction, my account "will likely be suspended".

What a crock!

Now that is just silly!

__________________

~ SBB Owner/Founder ~
Visit my blog!

There are two really sad aspects of this, which make me want to laugh and cry all at the same time.

First, from what I can tell from their website, they don't sell creations, elements or embellishments, they sell preservation products, such as albums, page refills and paper scrapping tools, things like that. So my product isn't even remotely similar to what they sell. They're pretty much about paper scrapping supplies and my work is digital and I was actually selling prints, not individual elements or kits.

Second, while they have an ebay account and have had it since 2003, they've never sold anything and do not have any auctions running at this present time. So even if my title, in-fact, was a copyright infringement, which it it is blatently obvious that it is not, I wouldn't be pulling customers away from them anyhow, since they aren't even selling anything nor have they ever. Not that it would make using their name ethical, it's just something I noticed.

GRR. I had a potential customer who contacted me about purchasing five or more and now, my auction is gone.

Sorry for the vent, I'm just really upset because I haven't done anything wrong.

Creative Memories is the original scrapbooking "home" business...they have great products for the paper scrapper but their paper and stickers etc aren't the most exciting...
Now...they are probably part of ebay just to police them...as you aren't supposed to sell the stuff on ebay...used, etc ok...but not new product. What they've done to you is just plain ridiculous but it is just par for the course for this company. They make great tools...but they aren't the only scrapbooking company out there and they really need to learn that...this isn't the first I've heard of this...I'm just sorry you got bit...

__________________
Brenda Kempf
My Gallery

Luvs5rugrats,

This stinks. You didn't infringe on the trademark because you didn't use the two words together. I hope you can contact the company to express your indignation.

__________________
Kathryn

My Gallery

My Blog

My Kits for Sale

I'd be contacting them and telling them you are going to tell EVERY scrapping forum of their actions. What they have done is entirely ridiculous. If they feel threatened by one individual digital scrapper then they musn't have much confidence in their own product.

__________________
Kim

Let us know what CM says after you contact them. It's too bad Ebay didn't give you more information also. Good luck.

I did send her/him an email this morning and haven't heard back yet, I'm assuming I won't I also sent an email to ebay through the avenue they give. What ebay said in their original email (more or less) to me was that exact specifics on what exactly was infringed didn't have to be explained and that Creative Memories was pretty much the ruling authority in this matter and I need to take issue with them for resolution before contacting ebay.


To make absolutely sure I had not done anything else wrong, I scoured their site and could find nothing at all that even vaguely resembled anything I was doing.

It's rediculous that I had absolutely no say in anything, my auction was just simply cancelled and ebay's exact words in their email were "If you relist this or any other similar items on eBay, your account likely will be suspended." It isn't the item that was claimed to be infringed, only the words "creative" and "memories". So that's saying that I can't even relist my item but use different wording, which I shouldn't have to change anyway.

I explained the situation to my potential buyer, I hope she still purchases them from me. I'll sell outside of ebay and they can kiss my tiny heiny.

*sigh*
I'm going to scrap, it makes me feel better. LOL