13,709 views!!! This ad by
First Daily Deal is a knock off…how could I tell? The ad shows the Spiral Eye design I licensed to Telebrands and the ads are actually Telebrands old tv video ads, but the actual needle they are selling does not match the picture…The picture shows the Spiral Eye Needle but the needle they are selling is my SENCH needle…which is made in China. Telebrands denies anything to do with it. They just said “Counterfeits are hard to fight.” A lot of good that does me.
First Daily Deals is advertising to individuals in America and probably all over the world. They then ship from their warehouse in California but what they really are doing is importing those needles illegally. Even if they ship just one direct to an american household it is a mail fraud.
My stomach still turns and my heart hurts. You see I actually let my home go to foreclosure, lived without a car for six months, and lived in my son’s basement just to keep my needle business going. Friends and even manufacturers have loaned me money or held accounts payable for years just to support my vision. And now, here comes a fly by night advertising their counterfeit needle to me and probably all of my facebook followers.
I do not have the money to sue anyone, even if I could find the person to sue. Counterfeit products from China may save the consumer a few dollars a year, but they crush inventors like me right out of business. Eleven years of living for my needle is hard. Knowing I may be knocked out by a counterfeit company is even hard. I have had counterfeit products make their way into the states before and was able to reach out to the magazine or store selling them and stopping them or worked a licensing deal. But a company in China that is selling to individuals in America … well the uphill climb just got steeper. And if I think about all the thousands of dollars I spend to get and keep patents in Europe and Canada where I cannot monitor knock offs, the hill just became a mountain.
I have notified my lawyer and Facebook, and it will be stopped soon I hope, but it will not change the 13,700+ times it has been seen by people.
