Intellectual Property Law

Stolen property on eBay?

My company sells an exclusive product at a trade price of over £1000 & somebody is selling one (allegedly new) on eBay with a start price of £500. Could it be stolen & if so - how do I notify eBay? Ok 3 answers - time for more details. The product is a computer system. It has been designed exclusively for my company. It would have been stolen from one of our dealers - not directly from us. At least one of our dealers has been ripped off for one of these systems & the only way to find out who we originally sold it to is to get the serial number from the underside of the system.

Public Comments

1. Maybe it isn't stolen. Could they have bought it from you and then turned around and try to resell it? Are you sure it is an exclusive product? I highly doubt it.
2. ebay makes it extremely easy to fence stolen goods. I would call the police instead of e-bay, but you will have to prove that the product was stolen, and will probably have to be able to tell them where and when the product was stolen. *edit- in order to file a complaint, you or your company has to be the victim. Your dealers should have some system of stock taking, if you check w/ them, they should be able to tell you if a system has been stolen or not. If it is stolen, you can set up a buy. You will then be able to figure out who is selling the item. Chances are, it's someone who works for the dealer that has stolen it.
3. it could be from a business or other person who went bankrupt and now has to sell cheap. or from a creditor who seized it after they evicted somebody and now they are selling it to get some of their money back. or it could be stolen. or it could be a scam. but unless you have some proof it was yours or stolen from your company there is nothing you can do about it.