Etsy report rejected: what to do

You did the work, filed the report, and got a rejection email. It’s frustrating, but a rejection usually isn’t a verdict that the copy is fine. More often the notice was missing something, or claimed the wrong kind of right. Here’s how to work out which, and how to fix it.

Why Etsy rejects reports

Etsy’s Legal Response and Enforcement team checks that each notice contains everything its Intellectual Property Policy requires. Etsy’s help article “Why Was My Notice of Infringement Rejected?” lists these situations:

1. The notice didn’t contain all the required information.
2. You misidentified the type of right or the basis of your claim.
3. A trademark claim had no valid, active, registered trademark.
4. A trademark claim cited a mark on the supplemental register.
5. The cited listings don’t appear to relate to the registered trademark in your notice.
6. A patent claim’s jurisdiction doesn’t apply to the seller’s location or delivery areas.

For handmade sellers dealing with copied photos and designs, the first two cause most of the trouble.

Fix 1: missing information

Etsy highlights three common errors:

• Incomplete contact details. Include your full name, complete physical address, phone number and email.
• Not enough detail about your work. When the form asks for examples of your work, link to your listing or portfolio, not the copycat’s listing.
• Shop names instead of listing URLs. Etsy needs each listing’s URL, like etsy.com/listing/1234567890. “Shop XYZ copied me” can’t be processed.

Our DMCA template has a slot for every required field, so it’s a good checklist before you resubmit.

Fix 2: the wrong kind of right

This is the subtle one. Picking the right category matters:

• Copyright covers original creative expression: photos, illustrations, patterns, written descriptions. If someone used your photo, that’s copyright.
• Trademark covers brand identifiers like your shop name or logo. Etsy’s published reasons show that trademark claims need a registered mark, and supplemental-register marks are rejected. Claiming trademark over an unregistered shop name is likely to fail.
• Patent covers inventions and designs with a granted patent, and jurisdiction matters.

If your report was about copied photos and you filed it as trademark, refile it as copyright with the photo details.

When the copy isn’t something IP law protects

Some reports are complete and correctly categorized but still go nowhere, because what was copied isn’t protected. US copyright law excludes ideas, procedures, methods and concepts (17 U.S.C. § 102(b)). That covers product concepts, general styles, colour palettes and common techniques. A competitor selling a similar “pressed flower phone case” with their own photos is generally not infringing your copyright.

Be honest with yourself here. If the listing uses your photo or a near-identical reproduction of your artwork, you have a strong case. If it’s a similar product shot by someone else, the better response is usually differentiation, not a report.

Not sure? Put your listing and theirs side by side. Our free copycat check compares photo fingerprints and shows a similarity score, which helps you see whether you’re looking at the same photo or just a similar product.

The supplier-photo trap

A situation that catches many sellers: you sell an item made by a manufacturer and use their product photos, and another shop does the same. Your report gets rejected, or the other seller counters. That’s because the photos belong to the supplier, not to you. Only the copyright owner, or someone they authorize, can report them. If this is your situation, the fix is to shoot your own photos. Then copies of those are yours to report.

A worked example

Say your report read: “Shop LeafAndLoom is copying my botanical mug. Please remove their shop.” It names a shop rather than listings, and doesn’t say what was copied. A resubmission that’s likely to be processed reads:

“Copyright: product photographs. My original listing: etsy.com/listing/[your ID], first published [date]. Infringing listings: etsy.com/listing/[ID 1] (my main photo, mirrored); etsy.com/listing/[ID 2] (my photos 2 and 4, recoloured). I own these photographs and have not licensed them.”

Same facts, but now a reviewer can check every claim in a minute.

How to resubmit a stronger report

1. Re-read the rejection email. It usually points at the problem.
2. Choose the correct right, usually copyright for photos and artwork.
3. List every infringing listing URL, one per line.
4. Link your original and describe exactly what matches, like “main photo, mirrored and recoloured”.
5. Complete every contact field.
6. Submit through the Reporting Portal, which is Etsy’s preferred channel. The full walkthrough is in how to report a copycat on Etsy.

If it still doesn’t work

• Ask for clarification. Reply through the channel named in the rejection email and ask what was missing.
• Register your copyright. You don’t need registration to send a takedown, but you need it before suing in US federal court, and it affects which damages are available. See the US Copyright Office registration page.
• Consider small claims. The Copyright Claims Board is a US Copyright Office tribunal for smaller copyright disputes, designed to be used without a lawyer.
• Talk to an attorney if the copying is large-scale, involves a registered trademark, or is costing you real sales.

Make the next report effortless

The sellers who resolve copycat problems fastest have three things ready: dated originals, every infringing URL, and a template. CopyCatch keeps the first two up to date for you by watching your listings and saving dated evidence for each match. Monitor 7 listings free, or try a one-off check first.