I am a single mom with a 10 year old child trying to make ends meet. I started a small company called No More Knots. I make bandanas that have Velcro sewn into them so you don't have to knot the bandana. I started selling them on eBay. The owner of dust bandit bandana found my auctions on eBay and ordered one of my bandanas.
About 6 months later I got an email from eBay that stated Alex from dust bandit has told them I was infringing on his patent with my auctions. He told them they were bootleg bandanas. They cancelled all my auctions and placed me on restriction. I pulled up his patent on the computer and then spoke with a representative at the patent office. The patent office informed me that my bandanas do not fall under his patent because they were different. The representative at the patent office told me to email Alex at dust bandit and gave me the exact words to say to him to let him know that there is a difference in our products and I was within my rights to sell my bandanas. I emailed Alex and told him.
EBay will not allow me to sell them on there again until Alex gives me permission to do so. That is there policy. Alex emailed me back saying he did not care what the patent office said and I was not allowed to sell them ever.
I set up another account with eBay and put my bandanas back up there. I received an email from Alex asking me if I would be a dealer for dust bandit. I though to myself you must be joking. I sent him and email again stating that I was well within my right to sell my product. Within hours of rejecting his offer I got another violation from eBay stating that I was violating dust bandits patent. Funny thing is he only violated the auctions that had bids already on them. EBay took my auctions that had bids down.
I filled an internet fraud report and have not heard back from them. I got up this morning and decided to check my other auction site I use "Ebid" to find out that they closed my auctions and my account. I asked them why and they told me Alex from dust bandit filed a complaint that I was infringing on his patent. Now this is after I told him to call the patent office himself and they would tell him that I was right to sell mine. I really need help!!! Where do I turn? He will not stop and I can't sell any of my products. I think this is internet harassment but have no clue how to fight him. Please help!!!
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