eBay Has Apparently Discovered a Counterfeit Spiritus Florum. It’s Me.

There are certain problems you expect to encounter when launching an independent perfume house. Finding good suppliers, wrestling with regulations, designing packaging, all that jazz.

Being accused of counterfeiting my own perfume was not especially high on the list, but I thought the absurdity of it all should be logged here for posterity.

Recently, I listed a 2 ml sample of Rhapsody in Violet on eBay. I thought I’d branch out there, because I’ve bought numerous samples of perfume from eBay in the past. It’s a good place to get official branded samples, particularly of niche perfumes. Nothing particularly exotic was going on. It was my perfume, made by me, sold under my brand, Spiritus Florum.

eBay removed the listing under its counterfeit policy, which presented something of a philosophical difficulty.

You see, I own Spiritus Florum.

I also own the registered SPIRITUS FLORUM trademark.

And, in a very cunning twist, I am also the person who makes Rhapsody in Violet.

So naturally I appealed and sent eBay the trademark documentation. No worries, I thought. They probably just want to check I’m the rights holder. That’s fair.

I had imagined this might result in somebody looking at the paperwork and restoring the listing. Instead, I received a response telling me that they wouldn’t restore the listing, and that sellers can face consequences from “brand owners”.

This was thoughtful.

Unfortunately, the brand owner is still me.

I was also warned about potential legal problems involving brand owners and law enforcement, which leaves me with some tasty options. I could send myself a cease and desist letter. I could sue myself, after reporting myself to myself. I could take myself to court, act for both the defence and prosecution, and spend the afternoon objecting to myself.

At the time of writing, I have asked eBay to formally explain whose intellectual-property rights they believe I am infringing by manufacturing and selling my own perfume under my own registered trademark.

This seems, to me, a reasonably straightforward question. But this is now the third email I’ve had with eBay dealing with either bots or copy-paste replies that don’t appear to address what I am saying or providing.

I have also asked whether the removal came from an external rights-holder complaint or from eBay’s own counterfeit-detection system, because if another rights holder has reported Spiritus Florum for infringing Spiritus Florum, I confess I am extremely curious to meet them.

For clarity, there is no mystery surrounding the provenance of Rhapsody in Violet. I formulated it. I manufacture it. Spiritus Florum is my business. The trademark documentation has been supplied to eBay. Twice. I’ve offered to send invoices, packaging components, etc.

I am also complying with eBay’s instruction not to relist the perfume while they investigate, so samples will not be available on eBay for a bit.

I’ll update this post when eBay provides a substantive answer. Or this could be an ongoing saga series of just ultimate facepalm goodness.

In the meantime, if you have arrived here from eBay as part of your investigation:

Hello.

Welcome to the Spiritus Florum website.

I own this, too. And here’s the content I said I’d write, because I’m a woman of my word.