Resmed Warning for eBayers?

Just a thought; maybe the note "from Resmed" was just another stinky troll.

If Ebay and/or Craigslist become very difficult to sell mask parts on, then CPAPtalk will become inundated with people selling them, for better or for worse.

xyz wrote:ebay = license to steal

As bad as craigslist.

Buyer beware.

Well, you have quite an attitude about Ebay. Yes, it's always Buyer Beware, but Ebay actually protects its buyers vs. craigslist (which is simply an ad by anybody).

Look up Exhaustion doctrine regarding intellectual property rights...which states basically that once a product is sold through the IP owners authorized distributor, that the IP owner exhausts its IP rights because the IP owner has already received just and fair compensation from the original sale. Basically this is the "first sale doctrine". I got the same letter from Resmed sent directly to my EBAY id.....I wrote them back asking them to sight the law which states I can't RESELL their product once the product has been purchased from one of their authorized dealers, which ALL of the products I sell have been. Also told them that if we can't resell their products then pretty much no one on EBAY can resell...as in the case of books, dvds, cd's...which all started out having IP rights...but that have now been exhausted because they were first sold by their "authorized" sellers.

n2relaxn2@gmail.com wrote:Look up Exhaustion doctrine regarding intellectual property rights...which states basically that once a product is sold through the IP owners authorized distributor, that the IP owner exhausts its IP rights because the IP owner has already received just and fair compensation from the original sale. Basically this is the "first sale doctrine". I got the same letter from Resmed sent directly to my EBAY id.....I wrote them back asking them to sight the law which states I can't RESELL their product once the product has been purchased from one of their authorized dealers, which ALL of the products I sell have been. Also told them that if we can't resell their products then pretty much no one on EBAY can resell...as in the case of books, dvds, cd's...which all started out having IP rights...but that have now been exhausted because they were first sold by their "authorized" sellers.

Thanks for pointing out the Exhaustion doctrine... and yet ResMed apparently trolls Ebay looking for nickel- and-dime sellers of mask parts. A sad low for a greedy rich company like ResMed.

Busy work to avoid those embarrassing layoffs during soft sales periods?

chunkyfrog wrote:Busy work to avoid those embarrassing layoffs during soft sales periods?

No there are agencies which do this. They also go after trademark violations like using the word "Olympic", "Barbie", using more the paid for versions of software, selling thing with The Mouse on it or the Jane hat on Etsy.

Like little bounty hunters.

chunkyfrog wrote:Like little bounty hunters.

Yes just like that but less entertaining then the tv shows.

My husband wrote to and then called Resmed because he wanted extras of those gray elasticky covers for the plastic flanges on my F10 mask frame. (I keep telling him not to bother; we can make them/get Padacheek products/or, gee, use one of the replacement masks we keep getting...but whatever.)

Resmed told him that their customers were the DME's, thank you very much. They couldn't be bothered with him. Yet they're sending letters to people reselling a couple of pillows on Ebay...

It would seem best for listings to eliminate their name (which they would consider their property, like calling a photocopy a Xerox used to cause problems). But as others have noted, mask parts don't fall under the medical device prescription rules.

I love the mental image of the DME's snuggling down at night in their Resmed masks...

dtsm wrote:Just to clarify original post.

The message I quoted was sent through the eBay "ask the seller a question". It was not an 'official letter' per se. I'm assuming they randomly selected some small-time and part-time sellers (like me) as a 'scare' tactic?

Probably drafted by their general counsel and sent by an intern tasked with trolling eBay seller sites.
Wonder if they're doing the same for CL sellers too?

I think you're right. It's just a shot across the bow ... trying to intimidate. But as a poster above says, if you are selling ANY product on eBay, you have the right to say what that product is, including who manufactured it. If you wanted to cover your ass, you could add something to your eBay posts indicating that you are not affiliated with the manufacturer, all sales are spare parts only and are sold as is, without warranty, etc.

SewTired wrote:

xyz wrote:ebay = license to steal

As bad as craigslist.

Buyer beware.

Well, you have quite an attitude about Ebay. Yes, it's always Buyer Beware, but Ebay actually protects its buyers vs. craigslist (which is simply an ad by anybody).

And yet, my broke-ass hubby and I managed to furnish most of our home off Craigslist, with great results!

Unfortunately, we live in a county with the motto "Government of the people, by the lawyers, for the lawyers."

"My lawyer is bigger than your lawyer," is often the governing policy of our society. Even big companies like eBay and the credit card companies often knuckle under to special interests and corporate lawyer goon squads.

IDontSnoreISwear wrote:
And yet, my broke-ass hubby and I managed to furnish most of our home off Craigslist, with great results!

It works fine as long as you can stand eyeball to eyeball and check out the object as you count the cash. We have been selling furniture and stuff on Kijiji the same way as we renovate and redecorate the house. You give cash, you take recliner, commode, wheelchair carrier, 36 glasses, .....

This all reminds me of the talk about Sat TV hacking many years ago. Let me explain, please
to hack sat tv you needed a card reader, yep just like the old resmed ones. These really hand nothing to do with sat tv specifically, they are an ISO industry standard dumb connector.
Everyone laughed and talked about no company could do anything because it was obvious that this stuff was NOT sat TV specific and totally generic

BUT if you happened to buy one from a web site that said anything about sat TV or kind of sounded like it did, bingo you got a letter saying they were going to sue if you didn't pay a several thousand payment to compensate them for loss of revenue by hacking their sat TV

Well more laughing and general carrying on

and then the law suits hit as a group, 100 or more being called into court and even though they may be right not one single person wanted to pay even more for a lawyer to defend them

Agreements were reached banning any one from saying what was in the agreements, but it leaked that you had to say you did wrong and if you ever did it again you were on the hook for $1M. oh and you had to send them the card reader.

so all this talk about rights and just hanging in there is all fine and dandy right until you get a legal serving hauling your butt into court and requiring you to write quite large checks to lawyers. Even if you are right 100%. It can cost you $10's of thousands to defend being right, and no you probably will not recover your legal fees.