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Quoted from an email: At one point, sellers boycotting eBay due to an increase in Final Value fees claimed a drop to 12 million listings would represent a victory. One third party count at DealsCart found a low of some 13.5 million listings on one day last week. Ebay shrugged off the boycott without comment, other than to claim the action had no effect. We don’t see that as being completely true, since thanks to the Internet this boycott received significant attention leading into its run.

In our humble opinion Ebay seems to have forgotten without sellers there are no buyers and without either they have no business. OR do they?

We know quite a number of decent people that have been banned from Ebay the people wasted the time sending in the forms Ebay sent them only to hear nothing back.

Thinking of ebay the way it was last century in 1998 when we first signed up to sell we couldn’t because we were in Australia. The endless draconian rules and regulations still apply 10 years on.

We spent $5000 to setup our Ebay shop properly & get it marketed only to be kicked in the teeth by Ebay. Then on the other hand Ebay seems to ignore and give second chances to those who are dodgy. Which we have been told by the people themselves.

We ourselves being on the up and up or the level. YOU WILL BE PLEASED TO KNOW nowadays do not associate with these people. So you are now warned as to the waste of money Ebay causes.

We support the sellers on principal however would it not be good the idea they have if they were to give a bit more thought to the idea and say give discounts for multiple items listed with the one campaign on Ebay.

My rant about trademarks is based on the fact that many of these words and phrases are just plain everyday old sayings that potentially have been around for hundreds of years. Please bear in mind I am all for copyright and that sort of protection but average phrases & words used in everyday life should in my opinion not be allowed as trademarks.

Take MacDonalds for instance and the I’m lovin it slogan, they claim it is protected by copyright or whatever. BUT I remember writing this about 15-20 years ago. NOW if I can find where I wrote that they may have to pay me royalties. AND though I may not be the first to have said it try using it now and you may get hit by the big red clown’s legal team.

Much of the problems that I see comes from the theory of the lion and the mouse or BIG vs LITTLE. Most of these new fan dangled companies, & even some older ones just think they are it and can push anyone around with all the money they have bilked out of us good folk.

A final note on My rant about trademarks
Just try to imagine how many companies have used your sayings and think how much money they could owe you. On the other hand everyone would be taking legal action against everyone everyday if it was worth it.

Quoted from today’s email

Trademark Keyword Issue Far From Settled.
Kentucky court to weigh in eventually

We can only expect this issue to be brought before the courts more and more, which might mean it is eventually decided by much higher courts: Does targeting your competitor’s trademark keyword in search ads constitute "use in commerce," and thus a trademark violation.

The issue has come up time and time again from some high-profile companies in various states and in various courts. Most of the time, the courts have answered with bidding on a competitor’s keyword does not violate trademark laws and is not considered "use in commerce." But a few other times, the courts have decided differently.