THE ART OF VIKKI

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COUNTERFEIT

Amazon counterfeiters surely do love my orange cat and the moon design. This pillow, designed and sold via my Zazzle shop, features a yellow and white stripe background and four simple words - Meow Purr Kitty Cats - in a mix of typography styles for interest.

This is my orange cat and the moon artwork, this time done in a repeating pattern on a rusty brown background with a space in the middle of the pillow to add a personalized name.

Again, I wonder how the Amazon counterfeiters handle requests to customize a pillow like this with a different name...

Oh hello blue cat and the moon on blue and white chevron, this time on a purple watch.

I was quite distraught when I found this wallet with my blue cat and the moon design on it. First I saw there were four customer reviews on the item. That means I lost AT LEAST four sales [not everyone leaves a review] when people purchased this wallet via Amazon instead of the legitimate item offered in my Zazzle shop.

Then I saw that three of the reviews were pretty bad and my heart began to race. My design, and thus my good name, was now associated with a poorly made counterfeit product. My good name is everything to me. I stopped gathering evidence of the nfringement and instead began hunting for a way to contact the reviewers so I could explain to them that I was in no way associated with this wallet, I was so sorry they had been duped and they should contact Amazon immediately to request a refund due to the wallet being counterfeit goods most probibly from China.

While I was unable to find any sort of a contact link for the customers, each individual review displayed an image of a wolf design which was the first in the choice of five "colors" so I think they purchased a counterfeit wolf wallet, not a counterfeit Blue Cat And The Moon wallet. I felt a little better, even though the whole thing was still pretty awful. I pushed on with reporting the infringement.

When I woke up the next morning, super bright and early, I found an email from Amazon in my inbox saying the item had been removed. I checked the link and ASIN number and both had been removed from the site. Something made me search again - you know, when you get that gut feeling - and lo and behold the Amazon Seller/Brand had, within HOURS, literally while I slept, re-uploaded my image with a new page and ASIN number and was again happily selling the poorly made wallets with my beloved blue cat used without permission. WITHIN HOURS. HOURS! It's like Wack-A-Mole on speed!

Black Cat And The Moon design on a watch with a white and gray stripes background.

My cat and the moon series is quite popular on Zazzle. It's pretty popular with Amazon counterfeiters too.

This is the black cat version of my Cat And The Moon artwork, this time on a gray and white chevron background on a watch.

Oh look, another one of my golf balls turned into a watch. This time it was my orange cat with a blue moon "Cat And The Moon" design with World's Best Cat Dad text.

It's hard to see but the name at the top is "Alexander" which is one of the name placeholders I used to use when creating text templates on Zazzle. There is no way to customize the text when buying from a counterfeiter on Amazon. Is the counterfeiter not very bright or are they just hoping a lot of people named Alexander will see this watch and buy it?

Nothing is safe. I created this variation of my Blue Cat And The Moon with arching text above where one could personalize the item with a name, and below the cat is curved wording that reads "World's Best Cat Dad", put it on a golf ball and posted it for sale in my Zazzle shop. A GOLF BALL.

Then the image gets copied, manipulated and overlaid on a random picture of a watch. Ta Da! Another counterfeit watch being sold on Amazon.

Some of my fellow artists have been removing or hiding their products in mass as the waves of thefts roll through by product type. First pillows, then phone cases, mouse pads, watches... their stores are empty, but they still aren't safe. As shown with this golf ball turned into a watch, if you have just one design on one product on one Print On Demand site, the Chinese counterfeiters, and the Americans pretending to be from China and doing the same thing, can still get you.

This is my American Southwest Thunderbird design done in reds and blues on an iPhone 6 case with a plain black background.

My blue sitting cats pillow, one facing left and one facing right, with a matching blue heart in between the two.

All original artwork, one of my unique kitty cat designs.

This blue coyote design was taken to be used as a counterfeit phone case back on June 3rd... well, I discovered it on June 3, 2016. This time the fake merchandise is the colorful coyote on a black pillow, listed twice with four to five seperate sellers representing the counterfeit pillow.

All previous infringements discovered on Amazon were designs taken from either my main Zazzle store or my Redbubble shop. This was the first item from my Zazzle photography store.

The photograph "Sunrise Sillouette" is my original photography set on a phone case with options to personalize the item with a name when purchased legally from my theartofvikkiphotog store on the Zazzle site.

This is my fanciful blue Great White Shark original artwork on an iPhone 6 phone case available exclusively in my Zazzle store.

This listing required two requests before it was removed.

Yes, this is the THIRD time that I found counterfeit versions of my brown trotting horse "I heart Arabians" shirt.

Once again I checked and double checked the previous infringements reported on June 4th and June 20th, and once again via dates listed and new ASIN numbers ascertained that this was a new batch of counterfeit shirts posted by this Amazon seller aka Amazon brand.

It took two emails to get this THIRD repeat infringement removed. How many reports for how many occurances of the same infringement of the same image by the same seller? Amazon does not make it easy on the artists, not at all.

Not to mention, the last time I checked this seller/brand which was maybe around July 15th-ish, they were still up and running, selling their counterfieit merchandise on Amazon.com despite the multiple individual and repeat infringements of my work alone.

This cute cat pillow was created during my multiple images phase. I used my blue cat and the moon artwork to create a unique pattern with space in the middle for personalization with a name.

I received no licensing agreement fees when this unauthorized version was posted for sale on Amazon, because there Was No Licensing Agreement.

I found this counterfeit version of my highly stylized "Sol" artwork on Amazon June 22nd. This decorative sun design is part of my space series which is available exclusively from my Zazzle store.

My walking Bigfoot artwork with my red and pink heart artwork combined together for a cute I Love Bigfoot shirt design offered exclusively on Zazzle.

I discovered this counterfeit version, available for sale without any licensing agreement, on Amazon.com June 22, 2016.

This is the second occurance of my I Love Arabian Horses tee shirt from Zazzle being sold by this third party seller.

I compared ASIN numbers and the listed "dates first available on Amazon.com" for the original June 4th report against the new infringements discovered on June 20th. This new set of Arabian horse shirts appeared to have been uploaded again by this seller after the first set of counterfeit horse shirts had been removed from the Amazon site.

I had to report this repeat infringement two times before Amazon finally removed everything.

This is the second time I found my cute Cat Dad orange cat tee shirt from Zazzle being sold by this seller.

Once again I checked ASIN numbers and dates first available on Amazon.com for the original June 4th report against the new infringements discovered on June 19th. The first set of counterfeit shirts were indeed successfully removed from the site but they had popped up again as brand new listings.

This listing required two infringement reports before it was taken down.

This is the second time I discovered this design of my blue sitting cats "world's best cat dad" being sold by this seller.

At first I thought maybe I had not checked to make sure the original infringements reported to Amazon on June 4th had indeed been taken down. After comparing the ASIN numbers and some of the "dates first available at Amazon.com" it appared that this third party seller had simply relisted the shirt again, multiple times, after the original set had been removed from the site.

Even though it was a repeat infringement, I still had to send 3 email reports and follow-ups before everything was removed.

This was the second time my Redbubble store was violated. This time it is my decorative letter M done in red and white watercolor stripes.

When I first offered this monogram M pillow for sale, the entire series was on a deep red background, which is when this was lifted from my Redbubble shop. I later changed it to a white background.

This was the first time something from my Redbubble store was taken. This is my decorative letter L done in metallic markers and then processed into each letter of the alphabet.

This monogram initial L pillow is exclusive to my Redbubble store. I do not offer this series of decorative letters for sale anywhere else but Redbubble.

I had to report this twice before it was finally removed from the Amazon site.

Discovered in early June 2016, this is my red and blue Thunderbird American Southwest original artwork pillow. I designed the original pillow with a black background which I think is rather fetching.

It was being offered for sale via two seperate listings, by no less than a total of five Amazon third party sellers, none of which entered into any sort of a licensing agreement with me, the artist of said work.

One listing was removed after one report but the other one required two requests before it was taken down.

This is my fanciful blue zebra with polka dots in his stripes on an iPhone 6 case along with the option to personalize with a name printed on the case. This standing zebra design, and thus this phone case, is offered exclusively in my Zazzle store.

You cannot legally purchase this case on Amazon. You just can't.

Found on June 4th with four seperate listings by the same seller, this is my trotting bay Arabian horse tee shirt with the phrase "I Heart Arabians" printed underneath the horse design.

This is the first occurance of my I Love Arabians t-shirt being offered for sale on the Amazon site without my knowledge, authorization or any licensing agreement.

Once again, I had to send two emails on these before they were removed.

This is the orange cat version of my Cat And The Moon series. Placed on a tee shirt with the words "Cat Dad" and available to purchase in my Zazzle shop.

Again, this seller posted the shirt on Amazon.com three times using different titles and ASIN numbers.

Discovered on June 4, 2016, this is the first time my cat dad orange cat t-shirt was offered to the public as counterfeit goods.

These listings required two requests before all were taken down.

My blue Plato's air sign original artwork on watches. The way the seller left the word "badge" in the title, I believe they took the design image from the pin back button available for sale in my Zazzle store and then superimposed the button image on top of a picture of a watch.

Two requests were necessary before all listings were taken down.

My blue Plato's air sign original artwork on a tee shirt. Proudly being sold on Amazon.com by someone I don't know.

This required three email notices before everything was removed.

Here is my Pi+NG PONG design again, this time slapped on a travel mug. I've never offered this variation of my blue pi symbol design on a travel mug in my zazzle store.

My blue Pi Symbol in my slices of color style. I added the text so it reads "pi+NG PONG and posted it for sale on ping pong paddles and ping pong balls in my Zazzle store. Counterfeiters appear to think it looks good slapped on a backpack.

I didn't even notice this until I was creating the jpg for this catalog, but see the text I highlighted with a red box around it? It reads "Classic Backpacks for everyday use from AmazonBasics". AmazonBasics... that sounds like something officially sanctioned by Amazon.com. That's a little bit more than just a "third party seller", right?

My blue sitting cats "World's best cat dad" shirt. Posted FOUR times.

Note the slightly different titles, some of which make no sense at all, along with different ASIN numbers. I suppose posting four different versions of the same counterfeit design on Amazon is to spam the search results and perhaps increase sales of the fake goods?

This is the first time this shirt design was illegally reproduced multiple times on Amazon.com.

I had to send two requests before all of them were finally removed.

As you can see from this ufHO ufHO ufHO Alien Santa shirt, I have a pretty good sense of humor. I'm a very happy person and I love to laugh. But there is nothing funny about the sense of dread I feel when I open up my spreadsheet and go looking for new infringements on Amazon. It hurts my soul.

My purple coyote colorful phone case.

I love my Mars design. There is an interesting story behind it... but I won't tell it here, on this page of things that have been taken from me.

I used to sell a lot of this golden crop circle tee shirts.

incidentally, this was my first introduction to this Amazon Seller who also appears to be a Brand on Amazon.com

Note that there are two ASIN numbers. It took a few more weeks and several more infringements before I figured out that this seller was sometimes using two sets of ASIN numbers. One displayed on the page and another in the product page link. This way, if one reported only the Page ASIN to Amazon, they would take that out of the system while the Link ASIN and product page remained live and available to to sell. That's why an artist has to check and double check that EVERYTHING has actually been removed from the site.

This listing required no less than three requests before it was taken down.

Great white shark design in blue shower curtain on a background of blue and white stripes.

This is my colorful blue coyote personalized phone case available in my zazzle store.

Not only are they taking my designs to print and sell but they are also taking the "insitu" merchandising images from the zazzle site. Those are property of zazzle, but the infringers don't care.

My Mister and Missus Bigfoot lover's mugs.

At this point I began to feel resigned to the fact that the Amazon counterfeiters did indeed think my designs are good enough to take without permission and I had been "discovered".

This is my walking Bigfoot design. I created the heart too.

I was a bit shocked when I found both I Heart Bigfoot pillows, back to back.

This item required two requests before it finally removed.

June 2016 started off with finding my Sasquatch pillow.

I Heart Bigfoot. I guess the Amazon counterfeiters do too.

This listing required two requests before it was taken down.

Trotting Bay Arabian Horse phone case, discovered in May 2016

I Heart Horses. I reckon the counterfeiters on Amazon do too.

Take Me To Your Santa pillow, taken again May 2016.

This listing required two requests before it was removed.

In April of 2016, as my fellow Zazzlers reported infringments increasing daily on the Amazon site, I investigated the listings of one of the reported third party sellers with gobs of images that were not theirs to use. I was taken aback to actually find another one of my designs, this time a Christmas pillow with my little green man in a Santa Hat.

Maybe I thought my designs were not trendy enough to be worth counterfeiting, but I honestly didn't think I would ever get hit again.

I was so wrong.

This listing required two requests before it was taken down.

This green spider pillow was the first item I ever found on Amazon.com being sold without my knowledge or authorization. I don't have a proper screenshot of the product on Amazon because, in my innocence back in October of 2015, I honestly thought it was an isolated incident.

Since then, I save my files filled with screenshots, page links, seller ID's, ASIN numbers and utilize a spreadsheet for tracking Amazon copyright infringement reporting and resolutions.

I decided to put this first infringement in the catalog, even without an actual screenshot, for historical purposes.