Zazzle Tag Course - Promoting Tag Spam and Trademark Theft

[CreativeLeahG]

Apparently, there is some form of Zazzle tagging course that is instructing creators to simply COPY the suggested tags that display as 'blue highlighted tabs' when conducting a Zazzle search for a specific product type. And the result is not only tag spam BUT trademark theft, and infringement.

I have recently become aware of this as I am seeing more new designs pop up using my officially registered ® trademarks in their descriptions and tags. In addition to reporting them, I also contact the infringers directly to ensure they know to remove all incidents and not do it again. Each time, the person claims innocence and that they are simply following instructions from a 'Zazzle tag course'.

You may be wondering why I and others use our own names/trademarks in our tags in the first place. For me, it's simply a matter of setting up feeds and doing simple searches across all of my stores for related products for collections, promotions, and so on. It is quite beneficial to 'me' and of course, when others use my trademarks, their items begin to appear, which is misleading if I am utilizing feeds to sell my products to my clients and describing them as 'mine' if those things turn out not to be mine! In essence, it is a major issue.

People that replicate those 'highlighted blue tags' also use arbitrary tags that have nothing to do with their designs, resulting in tag spam, which could explain why, as many have noted, we are seeing more of this lately.

I am extremely frank in delivering take-down notices because I want people to understand that this is not a 'minor' issue. And I know at least one other creative who has noticed her business name and trademark appear in the tags of other creators and asked why or how this happened. We now know... 'blue tag tabs' and a dubious tagging course.

Anyone who uses their own name/trademarks in their own tags should do a search (for newly added products) to check if they are affected.

[grafixmom]

I'm not sure if this is the "Zazzle tagging course" the infringer is referring to, but there is apparently such a thing. There is a teaser video on Youtube as well as a website offering courses for sale.

https://autopilotpassiveincome dot com/zazzle-course

[PAZP]

I just did a search also. That website you noted is listed first in my BRAVE search followed by a YouTube video talking about the course. The individual speaking says he has a Zazzle account. 

[idraw]

Please report this link to zazzle, bring it to their attention. Possibly the person posting the video who says they have a z account is in violation of Zazzle’s terms and conditions and their account (z can figure out if they have an account) could be shut down, as well as having the video removed.

Attention —forum mods

[CreativeLeahG]

It wouldn't be appropriate to report 'any' course without knowing specifically which one and what specifically they're advocating. I did ask the infringer which course they were referring to, but had no response to that. But if anyone does know of a course that seems particularly remiss in what they 'teach' or 'dubious' then that would be worth reviewing and noting.

[idraw]

Aw, I didn't mean you, @CreativeDesign.
@PAZP  mentioned that they did a search, that's the info that Z could se in order to investigate starting with that as a path. Also @grafixmom mentioned info which could be useful to z.
Z has "people"....😎🔎🖥
Thank you for posting about this!

[Lais]

NO WAY!! This course is awesome!

[Windy]

Stunning. This could explain a LOT! We are definitely noticing that this tag spamming is similar across shops, with same type of products, same characteristics of products, (no customization), same time frame of creation (usually a week or so). If someone is selling this course, people may be paying good money, trying the system for a week or two and then getting no sales, because tag spam does not typically bring the attention of an actual shopper for that product, much less a buyer.  Then they realize the system does not work, and they drop the store, leaving a bunch of products to litter Zazzle and make Zazzle a much less enjoyable place to shop.

[FloridaDesigner]

@Windy... spoken so eloquently!  And 100% on-point!

[Kymberli_Design]

I completely agree with you! I've always put "Kymberli" (for Kymberli Designs) as a tag in all my products to easily search. I've found people copying and pasting all of my tags including Kymberli which is a dead give away when Kymberli otherwise has nothing to do with the design, quite frustrating. 

[CreativeLeahG]

Cheeky aren't they! All innocence when caught too.