Intellectual Property Policy

GFX does not manufacture anything and does not own the brands sold here. What we can do is make it fast to tell us when something infringes, act on it properly, and give the seller a real way to answer.

This page covers trademark, copyright, design and patent rights, and counterfeit goods.

Reporting infringement

Use the report form. Formal notices may also be sent by post to the address on the contact page.

What we need

1. Who you are — name, organisation, email, phone, postal address.
2. What right you hold — the trademark or registration number, the copyright work, the design or patent registration. Where the right is unregistered, describe the basis of it.
3. That you are entitled to act — you are the rights holder, or you are authorised by them. If authorised, say by whom and attach the authorisation.
4. What specifically infringes — the listing URL, or the product and seller name. One report can cover many listings; list them.
5. Why it infringes — counterfeit, unauthorised use of a mark, copied images or description, an infringing design. "It infringes" on its own is not something we can act on.
6. A statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorised by the rights holder, their agent, or the law, and that what you have told us is accurate.

A report missing items 2, 3 or 5 takes longer, because we have to come back and ask. Sending it complete is the fastest route to a takedown.

What we do

1. Acknowledge within one working day, with a reference.
2. Review. Where a listing is plausibly counterfeit, it comes down first and is reviewed afterwards. A wrongly removed listing costs a seller a day. Counterfeit goods left up cost a customer the purchase and cost the brand more than that.
3. Tell the seller what was removed, why, who reported it, and how to appeal. A seller accused of infringement is entitled to know who accused them.
4. Tell you the outcome. Where a report leads to action against a seller, we will not describe what that action was.

Repeat infringement suspends the account. Orders already placed must still be fulfilled and money already earned is still settled — suspension stops future selling, it does not cancel obligations in either direction.

If your listing was removed

You will get a notice saying what came down, why, and who reported it.

To appeal, reply to that notice with:

• Why the report is wrong, or
• Evidence you are entitled to sell the product — an invoice showing the chain of supply, a distribution agreement, or authorisation from the brand

We review appeals within two working days. If you are right, the listing goes back up and nothing is recorded against your account.

An invoice is the thing that usually settles it. A seller who can show where stock came from is in a strong position; one who cannot is not, whatever else they send.

Authorised sellers and the badge

A brand that has claimed its registry entry can mark sellers as authorised. The badge means the brand says so. GFX does not grant it, does not grant it on the brand's behalf, and does not remove it because a competitor asked.

Not being authorised is not infringement. In India, selling genuine goods you lawfully acquired is generally lawful whether or not the brand appointed you. Sellers without the badge rank lower on the product page, and that is a ranking consequence rather than a legal one.

Where a brand wants only appointed sellers on its products, that is a conversation to have with us directly rather than a series of takedown notices.

Parallel imports

Genuine goods, imported through a channel the brand did not intend. These are generally lawful to sell in India, and they are allowed on GFX with one condition: the listing must say that the India manufacturer warranty does not apply. A customer finding that out at a service centre is a complaint we will resolve in their favour, and the cost lands on the seller.

A report that a parallel import is "counterfeit" when it is genuine is not something we will action as counterfeit. Tell us the disclosure is missing and we will act on that instead — quickly.

Bad-faith reports

Reporting a competitor to get a listing removed is not a tactic that works here. We look at who reports what and what proportion is upheld. A pattern of unfounded reports loses you the ability to report, and where a report is knowingly false we will tell the seller who made it.

Brand registry

Much of what arrives as an IP complaint is really a registry question — an unclaimed entry, a product attributed to the wrong brand, a seller who should have the badge and does not. Brand registry support handles those, and it is faster.