Gearheads and grease monkeys (and those who love them) have been drawn to Clock9nine’s stunning works of applied art, crafted from vintage automotive parts. It all started in 2020 when founder Matt Zufelt pulled the old nylon-toothed gear set out of his ‘78 Lincoln Continental while rebuilding the engine. “It looked so cool,” he couldn’t bring himself to throw away the timing set.
Matt starts with parts from classic cars, then designs 3D-printed components and creates artistic yet fully functional clocks for fans around the world. Clock9nine enjoyed several years of strong organic sales growth from his garage in Michigan. Unfortunately, the World Wide Web cuts both ways: The platforms that enable entrepreneurs to prosper are also plagued by counterfeiters who pounce on any thriving product. That’s what happened to Clock9nine in 2021.
Like so many legitimate small businesses, Clock9nine suffered sales declines and reputational damage at the hands of scammers. Thieves stole Matt’s product images and other content – like product reviews and even photos of his family! The bad guys then reposted the content on less-than-diligent e-commerce platforms and directed payments to themselves. Not only are these phony retailers siphoning revenue from the original entrepreneur, but unsuspecting consumers suffer, too: They either receive nothing or low-quality knockoffs, resulting in demands for refunds, and poor reviews of the authentic business.
Bigger brands have Asset Protection Departments dedicated to containing fraud and counterfeiting and ultimately write off a percentage of these losses. Small businesses lack the resources to chase infringers – and even one fraudulent seller can cause significant harm. But thanks to emerging technologies and wider-spread commitment to protect small businesses, it is no longer cost prohibitive for creative entrepreneurs like Matt to defend themselves against egregious intellectual property infringements.
The Solution
Matt had limited formal IP protection when he sought assistance from the brand protection agency Qti.ai. One of the first steps Qti.ai recommended was that Clock9nine register their product images with the U.S. Copyright Office. Although registration is not required to submit a takedown notice under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), including registration numbers can expedite compliance by the site operators. Additionally, registration is a prerequisite to filing a copyright infringement suit in federal court. So, while a DMCA takedown can only serve to remove material from an online platform like an eCommerce site, the registration serves to notify the infringer that the copyright owner is in a position to litigate. Likewise, internet platforms that may be wary of inaccurate DMCA notices are more likely to pay attention and respond promptly if the creator is organized enough to have registered their work.
Qti.ai filed a group registration of Clock9nine product photos via RightsClick, a software suite designed to facilitate easy registration of large groups of works. The platform helps small businesses build and manage their copyright portfolio. Then, with copyright registration in hand, Clock9nine’s IP attorney (SRipLaw) agreed to pursue a case against a number of infringing parties (a.k.a. the scammers) on a contingency basis – where the law firm gets paid a percentage of gross recovery if the case prevails.
Copyright registration also strengthens the legitimate creator’s hand outside of litigation. Timely registration opens the door to specialized damages calculations and awards of attorneys’ fees on top of the damages calculation. When a small business creator is negotiating with an infringer, that show of strength can mean the difference between settling out of court or securing a larger payment.
Savvy businesses can take that formal copyright protection a step further by engaging brand management agencies that focus their attention on specific product images across ecommerce platforms. Sophisticated algorithms quickly connect dozens of threat indicators like time-stamped screenshots, keywords in the product title, price, currency, seller profile, SSL certificate details, domain name registration dates, duplicate content on the “about us” page… All that robust data makes for compelling evidence in a court of law.
Added bonus: That documentation helps identify the next generation of counterfeits, detecting suspicious circumstances in advance – to ultimately minimize buyer exposure to fraudulent ecommerce sites, early in the consumer journey.
IP protection is complex, and it is wise to take a multi-pronged approach to protecting the rights of entrepreneurial creators and inventors. Different types of creative works sold as products may be protected by more than one legal framework. For instance, some businesses can avail themselves of patent, trademark, and more than one type of copyright protection. As the scammers never stop adapting and inventing more sophisticated ways to steal from businesses and harm consumers, entrepreneurs have to be equally nimble. A thorough understanding of the law, coupled with advanced tech, helps creative entrepreneurs defend their rights in a robust innovation economy.
Cheryl Darrup is Chief Strategist at Qti.ai, a brand protection agency featuring proactive proprietary solutions for inventors, artists, designers and the Intellectual Property lawyers that serve them.
Based in Corning, New York, Ms. Darrup develops and sustains strategic initiatives for this dynamic company, dedicated to detecting, documenting and taking down infringements across ecommerce and social media platforms. Cheryl particularly enjoys brainstorming with colleagues in many different industries, as she’s always maintained that true innovation happens when two distinct disciplines intersect for the greater good.
Ms. Darrup has published and presented dozens of times over her career, most recently about improving the efficiency and integrity of the funds verification requirement for global student mobility at the Association of International Educators’ Annual Conference in Washington, DC in May 2023.
David Newhoff is a widely respected advocate of creators’ rights. Since 2011, he has written over 900 articles, on the blog The Illusion of More and elsewhere, endorsing strong copyright rights and questioning the tech industry’s assault on those rights. In 2020, he published the book Who Invented Oscar Wilde? The Photograph at the Center of Modern American Copyright. And in 2021, he co-founded RightsClick with attorney/expert Steven Tepp.