Pratique du Shadowing: Trademark enforcement: Dealing with infringement on social media and e-commerce platforms - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

Choisissez un mode d'entraînement

Chaque mode ouvre une salle d'entraînement en plein écran.

183 phrases

Si les phrases sont trop courtes ou trop longues, cliquez sur Edit pour les ajuster.

So moving on to our next session, I think a lot of rights holders will find one of their touchpoints when it comes to dealing with counterfeit goods are often on social media and e-commerce platforms.

So with that, we'll welcome Holly back to discuss how to deal with infringements online.

Hello again.

So even while I was sitting here I received an e-mail from a stakeholder telling me about issues she was having with infringing products online.

So I do want you to know that this is an issue that comes up quite a bit for our stakeholders.

If you do reach out to me or my teammates, I encourage you to provide as much detail as possible.

While we are not able to be your lawyers, we do have regular contact with many of the major online platforms and it really is really important.

So I can talk with them or we can talk with them.

They are very interested in engaging with us.

And you know, we represent everybody.

We represent the platforms.

We represent brand owners, a lot of them, they're brand owners too.

So we work for everyone and with everyone and but know that we are here to kind of be a bridge talking about trends and any issues you are experiencing.

So without further ado, we can get into the meat.

So of course, e-commerce platforms are amazing.

I don't know if anyone here has ordered from the e-commerce platform in the last week, but I sure have have packages coming in the mail I think today.

So it's been a tremendous change and just sort of how we engage with a lot of products online.

And now anyone regardless of where you are in the world can be an entrepreneur and sell online to a global audience.

Now of course, the downside here is that anyone can try to sell your products online to a global audience.

So this can be tricky.

It's sort of a a double edged sword, right?

There's both good things and bad with pretty much everything.

Now, I think one of the sort of starting principles that's important to keep in mind here is while we are quite global in our commerce now, trademark law is what we call territorial.

So the scope of your trademark rights in the United States ends with the borders of the United States.

Now you all just got a trademark in the United States.

This might be your first.

This could be a trademark that you originally got abroad or maybe or that you had abroad and are now bringing you to the United States.

But it could be the other way around.

So knowing where to register your trademarks can be a bit tricky.

And it's something that of course you know, if you are able to discuss with an attorney, that would be sort of the the best prudent recommendation.

Now of course, it generally makes sense to seek registration where you're doing business, assuming you are able to.

the United States is a what's called a first to use jurisdiction, which means that we do have provide rights for trademark owners regardless of whether they have a federal trademark registration, not the same rights.

We talked about that a bit in the first session about the supercharging of your trademark rights that you get as a federal registered trademark owner.

But in most other countries around the world, they are what's considered a first to file jurisdiction or jurisdictions.

And in those cases, your rights without a registered trademark are extremely limited.

And many countries also don't require you to prove use before registering your trademark.

So if you are interested in expanding your rights globally, it might make sense to go ahead and register your trademark abroad for places that you are looking to do business in the near future.

Or, depending on the trademark, it could also make sense to seek coverage in countries that are involved in your supply chain, including the country of manufacture or transit countries.

Certainly, if counterfeiting is already proving to be an issue in a particular jurisdiction, seeking protection in that country might make sense as well.

Again, this is a little bit of your experience might vary.

You should consult your healthcare practitioner, AKA, you know, in this case your attorney.

I'm just making a sort of those sort of cheeky things that they always say on the prescriptions.

You know, talk to your doctor in this case, talk to your attorney if you're able.

But these are some sort of general parameters to keep in mind about where you might want to register.

And I did just put a, a little blurb or a point up here about the Madrid Protocol.

I mean, that's really its own session.

We have some lovely people here from our trademarks group who could speak in detail for days about the Madrid Protocol.

But I just want to note that it's a legal treaty that many countries around the world have signed that streamlines the process for filing trademark registrations abroad.

So just know, but that exists and you can look further into that or ask them folks here the Question Time if you want more information on that.

And the reason I wanted to speak a little bit, territoriality is also sort of the flip side of here is the jurisdiction issue.

Now, if you are a seller abroad or if you're a platform that's based abroad and then you're selling to customers here in the United States, you are still subject to US jurisdiction.

So before we're talking about the scope of your trademark rights going out here, know that if someone is abroad and infringing your rights here, they are still subject to the jurisdiction of the US courts.

Now, it's going to vary a bit by court and the facts at issue, but generally US courts can exercise jurisdiction over foreign defendants provided that they have aimed their actions at the United States or will like, for example, with the US customer.

And in some cases, courts have found that even a single transaction, so even one sale from someone from another country into the United States, is enough to subject them to specific jurisdiction.

It's known as the stream of commerce theory.

So again, a little bit your experience might vary, but know that just because a foreign platform or a foreign seller is, is involved in, in a particular case doesn't mean that you don't have rights here based on your US trademark registration.

Now we know that these platforms for example, might be subject to liability in in US courts because of this jurisdiction issue.

But but, but how?

And well, it depends - lawyerly answer.

Certainly if the platform is selling the goods directly, these these are created and manufactured, distributed by that company, then they would be subject to liability, no?

But of course most of these illicit goods are being offered by third party sellers.

You're probably quite familiar with that term.

You might be a third party seller.

Now in those cases, both the seller as well as the platform could be held liable.

Now, the seller, of course, would be directly liable for selling these infringing or counterfeit products, but the platform could be liable under a theory of of what we call secondary liability, and specifically the type known as contributory liability.

And contributory liability is a legal doctrine that holds a party liable for trademark infringement if they assist or encourage the direct infringer.

Now, what does that really mean?

Well, we're still trying to figure that out too.

It's not a new concept of contributory trademark infringement liability.

It certainly predates e-commerce.

For example, a flea market might be liable if they allow a vendor to sell counterfeit items, or a landlord might be liable for allowing the sale of infringing goods at their at their place that the tenant is selling it in their place of business now.

But the leading case on e-commerce actually dates back to 2010.

It's this 2010 Tiffany versus eBay decision.

And in that case, the Second Circuit held that eBay was not liable for contributory trademark infringement despite knowing that counterfeit Tiffany products were on sale on the eBay website.

So, well, why is that so?

Because eBay was promptly removing every infringing listing of which it had specific notice, and it cancelled any fees that it earned, the court concluded that ebays existing anti counterfeiting measures were adequate.

They noted that it certainly wouldn't be OK for online marketplaces to intentionally shield themselves from knowledge of infringing goods, But as long as they're responsive to complaints in a timely manner, they're in the clear from a liability perspective. Now, The court also reasoned that private market forces provided a strong incentive for the online marketplaces to take action.

If people repeatedly are buying counterfeit products from your website, you're probably not going to stop at that website anymore.

So this would incentivize the marketplaces to try to take action to get counterfeits off their site.

They want to keep their sites clean.

Now, since this decision, the result has been that the onus to discover and report infringing listings is on the brands, on the trademark owners.

Now, the argument that platforms make, which I think is quite compelling, is that, you know, they're not, they're selling all hundreds, thousands, millions of different types of products and they're not in a position to know the ins and outs of everyone's trademarks so that the brands are going to be in the best position to identify fakes.

So that's, that's, that's sort of where we're at now.

What does this mean in practice?

It's a little bit of a, there's some discrepancies I should say right now, but pretty much most major platforms and social media sites are going to have their own policies and procedures.

Typically a notice and takedown request that you can file to provide notice of these infringing listings or infringing posts in the case of social media.

And they all have a different number of hours or so, but they will then take action.

That's how it is sort of on paper.

As I noted before in my prior session, some of these brand platforms have introduced special privileges or special areas for registered trademark brand owners.

I mentioned Amazon, the brand registry or ebay's Vero program.

So that's also something that trademark owners can take advantage of.

At the same time, I do want to be realistic here.

I know that it doesn't always work.

I am, we are constantly being told about from stakeholders about situations where they have contacted a particular platform and the goods haven't been taken down or they're taken down and they reappear again.

So I just wanted to kind of assure the folks that, you know, I tried that, it's not working.

You're not crazy.

That is something that we do here fairly regularly.

I just want to emphasize once again that we do speak regularly with these companies.

They want to talk to us.

100

We have positive relationships.

101

So to the extent you can kind of let us know what's going on, where the hang ups are, we really do value that information.

102

And so we can convey to them on this sort of systemic level, figure out where those gaps are.

103

Now, the other thing I think that consumers, or brand owners, should know about is this is an issue that has really caught the attention of Congress.

104

Now. There's just been a lot of bipartisan interest in addressing the issue of counterfeit goods online.

105

One particular piece of legislation that's been introduced that you might have heard about is called the Shop Safe Act.

106

It's the stopping harmful offers on platforms by screening against fakes in e-commerce.

107

But you know, we love acronyms and in government, so it's "shop safe", which is actually a lot easier to say now.

108

It's actually been introduced in every congressional session since 2020 with some minimal edits each reintroduction.

109

And that's something that our team is following very closely.

110

Now, The act generally aims to reduce the availability of harmful counterfeit products by incentivizing online platforms to adopt best practices to prevent third party sellers from listing counterfeit products for sale.

111

So what does that really mean?

112

It basically would in some ways codify to an extent that Tiffany decision and it would make online marketplaces contributorily liable for counterfeit products.

113

In other words, they can be in trouble for their sellers infringing goods if it affects consumer health and safety unless they follow this certain list of best practices outlined in the act and without going line by line of legislation, which you don't want me to do.

114

The provisions include certain know your third party seller requirements and they also require platforms to proactively screen listings for infringing goods at no cost to the brand owners.

115

So this is something we are monitoring quite closely.

116

The other act that became law last year is the Inform Consumers Act.

117

We're still sort of following what the effects of that act are, but just sort of for everyone's general knowledge, The Informed Consumers Act is really focused on the requirement that certain platforms, depending on their size are required to collect data regarding the third party sellers.

118

The idea being that the really illicit actors don't really want their information out there, right?

119

They want to be anonymous.

120

So by requiring these third party sellers to provide information to the platforms to make themselves known, it's going to deter some of this bad behaviour.

121

So we are going to continue to monitor this act and other legislation.

122

So I think if to sort of conclude, I just wanted to say that I know this is not a new issue.

123

Like if you are having an issue again, literally as I was sitting here, I received an e-mail from somebody.

124

So this is a known issue.

125

It's something that we're working on.

126

It's something that we are interested in helping you with.

127

So to the extent you are able to provide us details of your issues, while we cannot necessarily provide individual advice and necessarily get your listings taken down, having the information about these trends is extremely useful.

128

And the platforms, both the ones that are based in the United States, but even the ones based abroad, they want to talk to us.

129

They are actively engaged in this process.

130

So please let us know.

131

All right, thank you. Holly, so we've got three questions for you.

132

The first is say there's a registered trademark, but it shows up as a username on a social media site or online in some capacity.

133

That seems to be a popular concern.

134

Yeah. We did receive a couple of questions, and I think an interesting concept that needs to be kind of addressed first is when is someone really infringing your mark versus just using it?

135

So in order to be a trademark infringement, there has to be a use of that trademark or a confusingly similar trademark in commerce.

136

Well, what does that mean?

137

That means the other side has to actually be offering goods and services for sale or in the case of a non profit, they're rendering those services.

138

OK, so merely using the trademark, even the exact same trademark as a username on Facebook or on X now we call it, or any of these other websites, or even as part of a domain name.

139

I saw a question about that too.

140

That is not trademark infringement.

141

Well, does that mean you're out of luck?

142

Are there any options? Maybe.

143

So there are other types of laws that could apply here.

144

Now, how that's going to be treated by, for example, a social media site is going to vary, but there are these ideas about false association.

145

So I guess the official name for it would be false designation of origin.

146

So if someone is using your trademark in a manner that it's likely to cause consumers to falsely believe that you're associated with endorsing, sponsoring, whatever that organization is, that can be actionable.

147

So you might be able to find relief on that ground.

148

The domain name thing gets a little bit more confusing.

149

That's again, that could be this whole other program on, on how to do domain name issues.

150

But again, provided that they're not really, the other side is not actually using that trademark in a way where they're offering anything, it can be tricky.

151

You know that Nutella example that was discussed.

152

So that would be an example where it'd be like a false designation of origin that people might believe Nutella was the one actually putting on the World Trademark Day.

153

And not just an individual fan, but fan sites are permissible.

154

That is a permissible use of a trademark.

155

So if you have a Nutella fan, for example, username or as an avatar that is provided it's not being used in a way to sell competing products that might be an acceptable use.

156

We would call that not to get into the legalese a nominative fair use, but simply using the trademark to describe the product is not any trademark infringement.

157

OK. And so I think the next question might be somewhat similar, similar.

158

So if you have a trademark registration, say for a clothing item and that clothing item shows up in a movie, how would they enforce that, right?

159

So this one is tricky.

160

I've actually dealt with this before in the video game context.

161

We had a client that had a product and someone was using that product in a video game.

162

Now, when we're talking about movies and music, this is where you start getting into some of the 1st Amendment issues.

163

And so there is a task that courts will rely on.

164

So Rogers versus Grimaldi test, we really want to get into the details about how that trademark is being used.

165

It wasn't necessary, was it relevant, but you can still sort of.

166

So again, I want to say this is like it's going to vary and this is something where you should definitely consult an attorney because it's a very niche area of the law.

167

I would certainly welcome the folks on the stage to opine on this as well, but it really depends on what that use is, the extent of the use, how it's being used, whether it's a plot point or whether it's incidental.

168

So you will see occasionally, sometimes in TV shows particularly see it as a reality TV, they'll like cover up the labels and stuff just because they want to even avoid this appearance of a false association.

169

So I think that's why I'll leave it at that is it depends, but I don't know because you all might have some some experience with this as well.

170

By and large, the the bigger production companies want to avoid that problem.

171

So they will try to get permission or they're sensitive to a protest, etcetera.

172

But I don't know your experience is Michelle.

173

But the smaller the production company, either they don't know or they don't care or they're just trying to be edgy.

174

It's a tough area for brand owners.

175

It really is.

176

It's such a niche issue that we actually have, like one of my partners.

177

That's her specialty.

178

It's like clearance.

179

It's clearance.

180

That's all she does.

181

And it's, I mean, it's a nuanced issue.

182

So you weren't kidding when you said check with a lawyer.

183

Yeah.

Télécharger l'application

Tout pour parler couramment

Prononciation IAChaque phrase notée

Phonétique (IPA)Maîtrisez chaque son

VocabulaireEnrichissez votre lexique

Jeu de vocabulaireApprenez en jouant

Scanner le QR

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

FOR YOU

Vidéo recommandée

335 phrases

PerfectTed's LinkedIn Culture, Currys' Employee Content and Grace Beverley's Personal Brand Empire

Business EnglishWorking Adults

69 phrases

TOEIC Speaking Express an Opinion (Question 11): Teamwork and Social Media at Work

TOEIC PrepBusiness EnglishWorking Adults

599 phrases

Why Most Go-To-Market Motions Collapse at Scale, with Jeanne DeWitt Grosser, COO at Vercel

Business EnglishWorking Adults

260 phrases

Quick Thinks: Network Smarter and Make Better Connections

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

43 phrases

Business Partner B2 Unit 4.1 Alternative video

Business EnglishWorking Adults

95 phrases

How to Start Import Export Business Step by Step in 2026

Business EnglishWorking Adults

Vocabulaire et conseils d’expression pour cette leçon

Cette vidéo contient 183 phrases et 3315 mots à répéter en shadowing. La partie parlée dure 19:49. Le locuteur parle à un rythme naturel d’environ 167 mots par minute, proche d’une conversation courante. 83 % des mots font partie des 3 000 mots les plus courants en anglais ; le reste mérite d’être vu avant de commencer.

Vocabulaire clé de cette vidéo

15 mots de la vidéo à retenir, avec leur prononciation et leur sens :

Mot	Prononciation	Sens
trademark nom	/ˈtɹeɪdmɑːk/	marque commerciale
jurisdiction nom	/d͡ʒʊɹɪsˈdɪkʃən/	juridiction
commerce nom	/ˈkɑ.mɚs/	commerce
abroad adverbe	/əˈbɹɔːd/	à l'étranger
liable adjectif	/ˈlaɪ̯əbəl/	responsable
liability nom	/laɪəˈbɪlɪti/	responsabilité, dette
infringement nom	/ɪnˈfɹɪnd͡ʒmənt/	infraction
cellar nom	/ˈsɛləɹ/	cave
registration nom	/ˌɹɛd͡ʒ.ɪˈstɹeɪ.ʃən/	enregistrement
vary verbe	/ˈvɛəɹi/	varier
seller nom	/ˈsɛlɚ/	vendeur, vendeuse
extent nom	/ɪkˈstɛnt/	mesure
tricky adjectif	/ˈtɹɪk.i/	épineux, compliqué
marketplace nom		marché, place du marché
versus	/ˈvɝsəs/	contre, face à

Les verbes à particule que vous entendrez

Mot	Prononciation	Sens
take down verbe		décrocher
come up verbe		se montrer, sortir du bois
cover up verbe		cacher, dissimuler
figure out verbe		cerner
go ahead verbe	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	vas-y, allez-y
go out verbe		sortir
show up verbe		apparaître, se montrer se pointer

Prononciation à surveiller

Le locuteur utilise 49 contractions et formes réduites, comme they're, don't, you're. Prononcez-les sous leur forme courte, telles que vous les entendez.

Les sons « sh » et « zh »: jurisdiction /d͡ʒʊɹɪsˈdɪkʃən/, registration /ˌɹɛd͡ʒ.ɪˈstɹeɪ.ʃən/, designation /dɛzɪɡˈneɪʃən/, occasionally /əˈkeɪʒənəli/, shield /ˈʃild/
Mots longs — placez bien l’accent: jurisdiction /d͡ʒʊɹɪsˈdɪkʃən/, liability /laɪəˈbɪlɪti/, registration /ˌɹɛd͡ʒ.ɪˈstɹeɪ.ʃən/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, designation /dɛzɪɡˈneɪʃən/

Comment s’entraîner avec cette vidéo

Écoutez la vidéo en entier une fois sans parler et notez les mots que vous ne connaissez pas.
Commencez à la vitesse 0,75×, répétez phrase par phrase, puis revenez à la vitesse normale quand cela devient facile.
Enregistrez-vous et comparez avec l’original, en faisant attention à des mots comme trademark, jurisdiction, commerce.

La grammaire de cette vidéo

Les structures que le locuteur utilise le plus, avec les mots exacts de la vidéo :

Structure	Dans la vidéo
Present perfect have/has + participe passé — une action passée qui compte encore maintenant	has ordered · it's been · have signed
Voix passive be + participe passé — l’accent est mis sur ce qui arrive, pas sur qui le fait	are involved · is involved · are created

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.

Technique du shadowing : lire le guide complet étape par étape →

Pratique du Shadowing: Trademark enforcement: Dealing with infringement on social media and e-commerce platforms - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

Choisissez un mode d'entraînement

Télécharger l'application

PerfectTed's LinkedIn Culture, Currys' Employee Content and Grace Beverley's Personal Brand Empire

Intellectual Property: Copyrights

How to Trade Risk on vs. Risk Off: Macro Environments Explained

How to Build Client Trust in English | Legal English – Advanced Lesson 1.1

What Should Marketers Do If Social Media Disappears Tomorrow? l Keynote In 5

What ACTUALLY Makes People Buy Things (Pricing Psychology Explained)

The challenge of counterfeits in the digital age | Vietnam Today

TOEIC Speaking Express an Opinion (Question 11): Teamwork and Social Media at Work

Why Most Go-To-Market Motions Collapse at Scale, with Jeanne DeWitt Grosser, COO at Vercel

Quick Thinks: Network Smarter and Make Better Connections

Business Partner B2 Unit 4.1 Alternative video

How to Start Import Export Business Step by Step in 2026

Vocabulaire et conseils d’expression pour cette leçon

Vocabulaire clé de cette vidéo

Les verbes à particule que vous entendrez

Prononciation à surveiller

Comment s’entraîner avec cette vidéo

La grammaire de cette vidéo

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?