Online Retailer Temu Withdraws Duplicates of Small Business’s Cards

A proprietor of a small business expressed dismay and distress upon discovering her card designs offered for sale on the extensive online retail platform, Temu, without her consent. Anwen Roberts, the owner of the design firm Draenog, stated that exact replicas of her Welsh language merchandise were present on the China-based website, having been duplicated without authorization. Ms. Roberts commented that this situation imposed additional strain on small enterprises such as hers, located in Caernarfon, Gwynedd, as she endeavors to earn a livelihood. Temu, which has since removed the cards from its platform, affirmed that it responded “quickly” upon receiving reports of “potential infringements,” stating its objective is to safeguard brand and artist intellectual property. Temu, a subsidiary of the Chinese conglomerate PDD Holdings and valued at $150 billion (£117 billion) earlier this year, functions as an online marketplace enabling third-party vendors to sell their goods directly to consumers. Ms. Roberts described it as a “massive shock” to observe her creations and designs being marketed online without her awareness. “They were identical and they used the designs we have online,” she informed Newyddion S4C. “It just breaks your heart a bit to know someone has used your work, put it out there and is potentially making money from something that I as a small business have created.” One of the cards available via Temu was “nadolig llawen mam a dad” (merry Christmas mum and dad in Welsh), depicting two hedgehogs touching noses amidst falling snow. The coloring, inscription, and artwork were identical. The card on the Temu website displayed “nadolig llawen mam a dad,” whereas Draenog’s version read “mam a dad nadolig llawen.” A further card on the Temu platform featured a sizable balloon inscribed with “penblwydd hapus” (happy birthday) and tethered to a dachshund, mirroring a Draenog card. Temu, whose product range encompasses apparel, electronics, and furniture, commenced operations in the US in 2022, subsequently expanding to the UK and globally, delivering to approximately 50 nations. “They can just take hundreds of thousands of images, take them off the internet, create some text, do it really quickly and they miss out the bit of weeks and months and hours of working with small businesses like I do and putting a lot of time and energy in,” Ms. Roberts stated. She indicated that the responsibility placed on individuals such as herself to report such incidents was both vexing and arduous, given “also the time of having to track them down and knowing your rights.” The Intellectual Property Office (IPO), a UK government entity, characterized intellectual property infringement as both a “local and global challenge” and affirmed its collaboration with other parties to “help tackle the threat it poses to businesses and consumers.” The IPO reported its engagement with prominent e-commerce retailers to facilitate the removal of products that violated rights or were counterfeit. It also communicated with these platforms to “permanently remove persistent sellers from their platforms” and “published guidance to help traders protect their IP rights on all major e-commerce stores, including Temu.” The IPO stated: “If people believe that their IP rights are being infringed, or suspect such goods are being offered for sale on e-commerce sites or social media marketplaces, they should make use of the tools these sites provide and always report this.” Fflur Elin, representing the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), mentioned that their research indicated that one in five small enterprises encountered instances of their work being copied when utilizing the largest online platforms. “This is extremely challenging and many often feel powerless when taking disputes to larger companies,” she further remarked. The FSB advocates for the UK government to “implement a system that allows dispute resolution between the larger companies and the small businesses and that is paid by a mechanism that raises the fees from the big platforms.” Temu confirmed it investigated this specific situation and “removed the infringing products that were found.” In a formal statement, it further declared: “For sellers who repeatedly violate these rules or commit serious infringements, we permanently ban them from the platform and remove all of their products.” “We have invested heavily in IP [intellectual property] rights protection, expanded our IP team, and introduced an IP portal and brand protection centre to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of handling infringement claims.” “As a result, we resolve over 99% of takedown requests within just a few days, which is faster than the industry average.”