Hi everyone,
http://www.etsy.com/transaction/93134509(Their item)
VS
https://www.etsy.com/listing/91113281/man-feet-get-cold-too-mens-house(My item)
This listing caught my eyes few months ago as it looks exactly like one of my items. (I am not the only seller who makes crocheted slippers on Etsy, however this is a particular design which I think you'll agree is a knock off). Not only is the design and the colour of the item similar, the seller arranges and photographs the item in a near identical way for her second, third and fourth images. The striking similarities between the slippers themselves and the way they are presented makes it pretty difficult for this to be just a coincidence.
On top of that, the seller bluntly copys and pastes the wording of my listing including this part '...These slippers are entirely handmade with an original pattern designed by WhiteNoiseMaker' with my store name simply changed to hers.
I contacted her last night before I publicly discuss this matter out of a respect for her. This is what she got back to me with,
"I am offended by your accusations. We have NEVER heard of your store. We have NEVER visited your store. We live in another country.
We designed the items on our store ourselves. For you to state that you own intellectual property rights of crochet slippers is incredible. Patterns for crochet slippers are available for FREE online. There are many vendors of crochet slippers on Etsy and other places via the internet.
We intend to share this information on our sites and with the Etsy legal team as well. I hope that you will voluntarily and immediately stop defaming our shop. Failure to do so could be considered slander."
It is a great shame to take credit for somebody else's hard work. This is not the first time I've come across people like this, but I am starting to feel it is wrong to let them copy my work so easily. However, I understand it is probably not possible to stop everyone from copying others' work in this enormous Internet world.
Any thoughts or advise on what I should do next?
