Good Morning Fellow Stampers ~
I had other plans for today's blog post, and then we received some interesting news from Stampin' Up! that I wanted to share with you, so we'll delay for a little bit my original plan for today's blog post.
As a follow up to my announcement yesterday that we will be adding a new platform to DDS blogging and updates - a new Private Facebook Page called DDS Distinctive Dabblers - I wanted to let you know that Wednesdays going forward are going to be my planned primary blogging day and will be called Wednesday WOW with Wendy. We will intermix our Wednesday WOW post with "Class With Wendy", "Just Ask Wendy", "WOW Wednesday projects", and of course, our monthly Pals Blog Hop. So I hope this will be a fun weekly get-together. I may post during other times of the week, but it will not be as consistent. Rather, you will want to be a part of the new DDS Distinctive Dabblers as that is where we will be having our fun, interaction and sharing on a more day-to-day basis.
Today I want to briefly revisit a previous Just Ask Wendy Post that I wrote last October 2017 - you can revisit that Post HERE, where we talked about Stampin' Up! "knockoffs" - these are inferior copies of Stampin' Up! products that can be found on the internet in places like eBay, AliExpress, and Wish. We talked about how this is actually illegal, but does happen to top name brands like Gucci and Prada.
Today we received the following news from Stampin' Up! - and I want to share it with you, because I think it is important for everyone to know:
Counterfeit Stampin’ Up! Products
"We are very aware of the counterfeit Stampin’ Up! products that have been appearing on sites like AliExpress, Wish, and eBay. Our corporate counsel has been working diligently to protect not only the Stampin’ Up! corporation, but also all of your businesses, from these fraudulent and inferior products.
Yesterday, Stampin’ Up! filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the US Federal District Court of Utah against Alibaba.com Hong Kong Ltd., the operator of the AliExpress e-commerce platform; this is an aggressive effort to stop the sale of counterfeit Stampin’ Up! products on AliExpress by merchants who appear to be based in China. US law requires Alibaba.com to remove forged and counterfeit products from AliExpress once it has been notified that such products are being offered for sale. We previously tried to stop the sale of these products by going through Alibaba.com’s purported reporting channels without success; the purpose of this lawsuit is to obtain the assistance of the US federal courts to compel Alibaba.com to comply with their legal obligations. A lawsuit is not our first preference; however, given the severity of the problem, it is our best option at this point.
We are committed to ensuring all of Stampin’ Up!’s art and intellectual property—and by extension, each of your businesses—are protected. We have taken additional steps on our end to make copying our artwork more difficult, and we will continue to take whatever legal action is necessary in order to shut down forgers and counterfeiters.
If your customers ask you questions about counterfeit Stampin’ Up! products, remind them that while it may be tempting to buy these products because of their cheap price, they’re cheap for a reason: Not only are they illegal, but they are highly inferior to Stampin’ Up!’s quality. They will not produce the top-quality results your customers have become accustomed to while using true Stampin’ Up! products."
I want everyone to know that purchasing these products from these companies actually hurts Stampin' Up!. I also want you to know that you are getting a far inferior product from the one you will get through Stampin' Up!, and that you will ultimately be unhappy with how your stamped images look, and how well your product holds up over time. Please do not buy copies of Stampin' Up! products from these companies no matter how appealing it may seem monetarily. It is worth the extra money to get the legal version and a far better longer lasting product!
I believe that we will see less of these copies on the market as Stampin' Up! becomes more aggressive in protecting their intellectual property. You can always purchase all of your Stampin' Up! products through my Online Store 24/7, right from the comfort of your couch in your jammies :-) Now that's really the best part, isn't it??
Thanks for joining me today - and I have something fun I'm working on in the Studio that I'll share with you soon (I keep changing my mind on how it should look - LOL),
Until Next Time (Puppy Hugs!)