Guide
Can you get copies of your products taken down without a trademark?
By Josh Pigford, founder of Knockoff
Yes, when the copy uses your product photos or your listing text. You've owned the copyright in those since the day you made them, and a copyright notice doesn't need a registration. Shopify, eBay, Walmart, Temu, Amazon and Etsy all take a copyright report from the owner or an authorized agent. A trademark only comes into it when the copier reshot the product or sells under your brand name.
That's the part most founders miss. Your photos are usually the stronger claim anyway. They're the thing that was literally taken. If a store lifted them, you can file today.
Which report forms work without a trademark?
Read the copyright column. That's the one open to you today. Walmart and Amazon also run a stricter brand program next to the public form. Rules as of October 22, 2026.
| Where the copy is, and the form | Copyright report (your photos, your text) | Trademark report (your name, your logo) |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify store: Shopify's report forms, Shopify login needed | Yes. Your contact details, a link to or description of your original, and a link to each copied page, with a statement under penalty of perjury | The trademark notice asks for the countries it's registered in and the registration number. The trade dress part asks for neither |
| eBay listing: eBay's rights-owner program, or a DMCA notice to eBay | Yes, from the rights owner or an authorized representative. eBay names copied photos and copied listing text | eBay's policy page doesn't say whether a registration is required |
| Walmart listing: the public IP Claim Form, no sign-in | Yes. The copyright number field is marked optional | The trademark number field is required |
| Walmart: Brand Portal | Joining needs an active USPTO registration with a seven-digit number. An application that's still pending isn't eligible yet | |
| Temu listing: Temu's IP Portal, login needed | Yes, from the rights owner or an agent with their permission, sworn under penalty of perjury | Temu's policy doesn't say whether a registration is required |
| Amazon listing: Report Infringement, Amazon sign-in needed | Yes. The form is for rights owners and their agents, and covers copyright | The same form covers trademark |
| Amazon: Brand Registry | Joining needs a registered trademark or a pending application | |
| Etsy listing: the Etsy Reporting Portal | Yes. Etsy's help center: "You don't need to register your work for copyright." | Needs "a valid, active, registered trademark". With only an application, Etsy "may not be able to process" the notice |
For how the two kinds of claim differ in court, see copyright vs trademark for product sellers.
What does a copyright notice ask for?
Six things, listed in the law at 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3)(A): a signature from the owner or someone authorized to act for them, the work that was copied, where the copy is, how to reach you, a statement that you believe the use isn't authorized, and a statement under penalty of perjury that the notice is accurate and you're authorized to send it. No registration number is on that list. The Copyright Office puts it plainly: "Copyright exists from the moment the work is created."
The part people get wrong is the copy's location. Point at each listing, not the store. Shopify's policy says it outright: "A general shop link will not be accepted." The DMCA takedown notice template lays out all six parts, and the free notice generator fills them in for you.
Do you own the photos you're reporting?
The whole no-trademark route rests on one thing: the photos are yours. Every notice is signed under penalty of perjury, so settle this before you sign.
You or your staff shot them
They're yours. A photo taken by an employee as part of the job belongs to the business.
You paid a freelance photographer
Paying for the shoot doesn't move the copyright. Under 17 U.S.C. 204(a), a transfer is valid only in a signed writing, and a freelance product photo usually isn't a "work made for hire" under the law's definition. Until the photographer signs the rights over, they're the owner, and you'd be filing for someone else. A one-page assignment fixes it, and the work for hire agreement generator writes one for a shoot that already happened.
A supplier or a stock site provided them
Then they aren't yours to report. A white-label supplier often sends the same files to every brand it sells to, so the "copy" may be another customer of the same factory. Someone who knowingly misstates that material is infringing is liable for the other side's damages and legal fees under 17 U.S.C. 512(f). Knockoff asks you who made a photo when there's any doubt, and a supplier or stock photo is never filed.
If you want the photos on record too, registering your product photos walks through it.
When do you need a trademark instead?
Copyright protects the photo, not the product. The law says copyright never extends to "any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery" (17 U.S.C. 102(b)). So two kinds of copy fall outside a copyright notice:
- A lookalike shot fresh. The copier made the same product and took new pictures of it. There's no photo of yours on the listing to point at.
- Your brand name or logo. A seller trading on your name is a trademark problem, and most trademark forms want a registration number.
There's one opening on Shopify. Its trade dress report (trade dress is the overall look of your product) asks for no registration, but you have to describe what makes the look distinctive and state that it isn't functional. Trade dress examples shows where that line has fallen in real cases. Rights in an unregistered name do exist, but the USPTO says they're tied to the area where you use the mark, and few platform forms accept them. Common law trademark rights covers what they're good for.
So file the application now, and don't wait on it to act. The USPTO fee is $350 per class of goods. Its own timeline, updated October 1, 2026, puts the average at 4.3 months to a first examining action and 10.4 months to registration or abandonment. A pending application is enough for Amazon Brand Registry. Everything that needs a registration number waits for the certificate. How long a trademark takes breaks down the wait, and the trademark cost calculator prices your classes.
What if the seller sends a counter-notice?
Most don't. In Etsy's 2025 transparency report, sellers filed counter-notices on 10% of copyright reports. When one comes, the platform puts the listing back 10 to 14 business days later unless you've filed a lawsuit by then (17 U.S.C. 512(g)).
This is the one place an unregistered photo slows you down. You can send a notice without a registration, but you can't sue over a US work until the Copyright Office has registered it or refused it (17 U.S.C. 411(a)). The Office averages 4.1 months to process a claim, far longer than those 10 to 14 business days. The cheap fix is to register your best photos before you need them. A group of photographs is $55 in one application. Special handling, at $800 on top, aims for five working days but is limited to cases like pending or prospective litigation.
Can someone file these for you?
Yes. The law lets "a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner" sign the notice, and every platform in the table takes reports from an authorized agent. No trademark is needed for that either.
That's what Knockoff does. We search the open web every day for your product photos, confirm each copy against your own photos, and file the copyright claim on Shopify stores, eBay and Temu as your authorized agent, under one letter you sign once. You don't approve each case or touch a form. Counter-notices come back to us, and we send you the document and the date the listing would return. It's one plan, fully managed, at $799 a month with no contract.
For a single copy, you don't need anyone. Filing a DMCA takedown with Shopify and reporting a Shopify store walk you through the free route. A service earns its fee when the copies keep coming. To see whether yours are out there, run a free scan of 20 of your products.
