In brief
Temu, an online shopping giant, has announced its commitment to cooperate with the greeting card industry to more swiftly remove copied designs from its platform, following concerns from card makers about rampant copyright infringement. This new initiative comes as designers, like Amanda Mountain from Lola Design, have voiced frustration over the ease with which their original artwork is duplicated and sold as cheap alternatives. Temu's new process streamlines reporting and uses AI to better protect original creations, marking a significant step toward preserving the integrity of the greeting card market.
Online shopping giant Temu has agreed to work with the greeting card industry to remove copied designs from its site more quickly.
Card firms say hundreds of their copyrighted images have been used to create cheap rip-offs, costing them thousands of pounds in lost sales.
Designers told the BBC the process for getting the plagiarised listings removed has been like the fairground game 'whack-a-mole' with copied products re-appearing within days.
Temu said protecting intellectual property was a top priority and that it was encouraging sellers to join the trial of a new takedown process specifically for the greetings card industry.
Amanda Mountain, the co-founder of York-based Lola Design, discovered the catalogue of designs she had built up over a decade had nearly all been copied.
She found the images she had created had been lifted and were being advertised by other sellers on cards and other products like t-shirts.
Amanda bought one of the cards using her design and found the image was distorted and the paper was of a poorer quality than hers.
It's not a nice feeling to see something you've poured all your love and hours into taken within minutes, she told the BBC. I was in shock, and I actually thought to myself 'what is the point of me still designing, I might as well just stop now'.
Amanda, and her husband and business partner Frank, estimate that fraudulent versions of their products have made online sellers £100,000 in sales, equivalent to about 13% of Lola Design's annual turnover.
However, Amanda said it is both the emotional toll and the time taken to get the copycat products removed that have had the biggest impact.
After pressure from the Greeting Card Association (GCA), Temu has now put in place a bespoke takedown process for the industry which, it says, will mean stolen designs are removed more quickly and won't be able to be re-uploaded.
According to the GCA, the system will then use AI to log the designer's original creation as a protected image. It will then block any products using that design before they appear for sale.
In a statement, Temu said intellectual property protection is a top priority and that it had invested heavily in resources to strengthen trust with brands, sellers and consumers.
The system is bespoke to the card industry, however, the BBC understands it could be used as a model for similar or alternative processes for other products.
