Shirt brand owner shares fix to get thousands of Temu dupes taken down

Warwick Levy, the owner of Lonely Kids Club, discovered thousands of copies of his T-shirts on the online marketplace Temu. Concerned, he tried to report the violations using the platform's violation reporting form but encountered issues. After facing repeated technical difficulties, Mr. Levy found a workaround that allowed him to successfully report the infringing listings.

The delay in addressing the issues led to a decrease in sales, particularly for his best-selling design, "Healthy Harold," which became significantly less popular as the copies took its place. Despite not having the resources to pursue legal action, Mr. Levy felt compelled to act and reported the violations. Temu promptly removed the listings following Mr. Levy's complaints, citing their policy of enforcing intellectual property rights.

Mr. Levy has since shared his troubleshooting process with other designers who may face similar issues, providing detailed instructions on how to report Temu's IP violations. Additionally, he has implemented software on his own website to prevent design theft. Although he still encounters copies of his work on other platforms, the scale is far less than what he experienced on Temu.

The incident prompted Mr. Levy to call for a more supportive hub to assist Australian designers impacted by intellectual property violations.