Help! Other Vendor Copying from My Site!

[pushing books]

Hi,

I have a problem. Since i started business early this year, a few new competitors have entered the market selling the same products as me at the same places as me.

One of them is an acquaintance of my family. When i started this business, he showed some interest in my business model and started to visit the stalls that i had around the island.

Shortly after, I noticed some ads in tampines selling the same products as mine and decided to check them out as their marketing message was the same as mine.

Upon checking out the livejournal stated, i found out that it was that guy who was running it and alot of his content was directly lifted from my site. I'm very sure its from my livejournal as the whole format of the t&c was the same and word for word except for the delivery details and contact details. Even the colour was exactly the same. He even posted pictures of my flea/bazaar stalls on his site showing the books. I have quite a distinctive table cloth and i arrange all the books in a certain way.

He also started to participate in alot of the events that i've been participating in and i saw him a couple of times selling a few stalls down from me. I even saw him giving out flyers that were exactly the same as my dad's site except that the contact details were different.

He even started to take from suppliers that are our contacts. This supplier does not supply to others as they themselves are retailers. However, we got their contact through a close friend who was a close friend of the boss and only after we explained our business to him and our market, did he decide that we would not compete with his business directly.

After purchasing from them for some time we found out that the other guy was also getting his books from them. And they were only supplying him because he was acquainted with us and they probably thought we were in the same business or doing some sort of partnership with him. Which basically means that he was indirectly using his connection with us to use the special discount that was given to us. The supplier only works with registered businesses to ensure that it is legitimate. Since the guy's business is not registered, he is kind of riding on us to get the corporate discount as he would only be able to get a regular customer discount at most.

Since he is using pictures of my stall on his site and my dad's flyers (except the contact details), i'm afraid that if he has a bad reputation, it may have a bad image/branding transference to my business as well as my dad's as his marketing tools are copied from us.

Btw my dad's business and my business are registered separately as we have a different range/market as well as biz model.

I've sent an equiry to Ace(http://www.ace.org.sg) but they haven't replied and its been some months now.

What should i do? Has anyone encountered similar situations?

[noeclue]

You can contact livejournal and provide them with all your evidences. They are under dmca (digital millenium copyright act). As long as your evidences are sufficient, they will take an action on it.

[pushing books]

Oh, i wasn't aware of that. Thanks for your help!

[ceceliacheng]

Originally Posted by pushing books

Hi,

I have a problem. Since i started business early this year, a few new competitors have entered the market selling the same products as me at the same places as me.

One of them is an acquaintance of my family. When i started this business, he showed some interest in my business model and started to visit the stalls that i had around the island.

Shortly after, I noticed some ads in tampines selling the same products as mine and decided to check them out as their marketing message was the same as mine.

Upon checking out the livejournal stated, i found out that it was that guy who was running it and alot of his content was directly lifted from my site. I'm very sure its from my livejournal as the whole format of the t&c was the same and word for word except for the delivery details and contact details. Even the colour was exactly the same. He even posted pictures of my flea/bazaar stalls on his site showing the books. I have quite a distinctive table cloth and i arrange all the books in a certain way.

He also started to participate in alot of the events that i've been participating in and i saw him a couple of times selling a few stalls down from me. I even saw him giving out flyers that were exactly the same as my dad's site except that the contact details were different.

He even started to take from suppliers that are our contacts. This supplier does not supply to others as they themselves are retailers. However, we got their contact through a close friend who was a close friend of the boss and only after we explained our business to him and our market, did he decide that we would not compete with his business directly.

After purchasing from them for some time we found out that the other guy was also getting his books from them. And they were only supplying him because he was acquainted with us and they probably thought we were in the same business or doing some sort of partnership with him. Which basically means that he was indirectly using his connection with us to use the special discount that was given to us. The supplier only works with registered businesses to ensure that it is legitimate. Since the guy's business is not registered, he is kind of riding on us to get the corporate discount as he would only be able to get a regular customer discount at most.

Since he is using pictures of my stall on his site and my dad's flyers (except the contact details), i'm afraid that if he has a bad reputation, it may have a bad image/branding transference to my business as well as my dad's as his marketing tools are copied from us.

Btw my dad's business and my business are registered separately as we have a different range/market as well as biz model.

I've sent an equiry to Ace(http://www.ace.org.sg) but they haven't replied and its been some months now.

What should i do? Has anyone encountered similar situations?

I can understand how you feel, i also jus kena dis week, n dis irritating b jus next to my stall, imagine how irritate dis B is,
Day 1 - yes, come and say halo, den start to stand in front of my stall and check my price, after that even ask sis, friend come to check my stuff, but dis is a very stupid woman, where got people ask friend/relative come then run back to her stall and tell her, infront of me??!!
Day 2 - bring the similar item that i sell and TRY to slash the price, but too bad, bcos i bring older stuff to clear stock,
Day 3 - try to come out more pattern, again, come and check the stuff, but too bad, i change all my products, all old stuff, really CLEAR STOCK.

[pushing books]

Yeah its so irritating. At another flea we were at, there was another vendor originally selling chinese books then he saw like our business is good then he start to bring in english books as well and from our old supplier whom we suspect is selling books that are stolen from the warehouses or major bookstore's stock. But the new vendor was quite reasonable in the sense that we told him about our old supplier and advised him to not take too much from him. Eventually he started to take more from legitimate sources and he even match our prices so that we don't end up having an unnecessary price war.

But in the end, recently another guy started selling at our regular flea and he slashed the prices super low that is impossible to get from legitimate sources. Also, judging from his stock we know exactly where the goods were stolen especially since we work with the warehouse that the goods are from and even the warehouse is aware that this has been going on for quite some time and they roughly know who is behind it but don't have sufficient proof to nab them.

[pinkocean]

Originally Posted by ceceliacheng

I can understand how you feel, i also jus kena dis week, n dis irritating b jus next to my stall, imagine how irritate dis B is,
Day 1 - yes, come and say halo, den start to stand in front of my stall and check my price, after that even ask sis, friend come to check my stuff, but dis is a very stupid woman, where got people ask friend/relative come then run back to her stall and tell her, infront of me??!!
Day 2 - bring the similar item that i sell and TRY to slash the price, but too bad, bcos i bring older stuff to clear stock,
Day 3 - try to come out more pattern, again, come and check the stuff, but too bad, i change all my products, all old stuff, really CLEAR STOCK.

lol...this is exactly what i had faced. Its quite hilarious to know that all copycats thinks alike. Or are we talking about the same one? The woman boss is tall tall one?

[ceceliacheng]

Originally Posted by pinkocean

lol...this is exactly what i had faced. Its quite hilarious to know that all copycats thinks alike. Or are we talking about the same one? The woman boss is tall tall one?

eh...no, where you met "her"?