Copyright Theft
Perhaps we should be flattered by the number of people including dealers who continually infringe our IP (Intellectual Property) rights by using our copyright images, but we do not find it amusing, and will take legal action against any copyright thieves.
Sonika Jewellers (sonika.co.uk)
Sonika Jewellers eGold (sonika.co.uk) of London are just one of the many coin dealers & jewellers worldwide who commit copyright theft by using our copyright images without our permission.
On many of their pages including the one we reproduce here, they are clearly using our Krugerrand obverse image, and our proof Canadian maple leaf photographs.
Copyright Abuse is Dishonest
Sonika Jewellers have a copyright notice at the bottom of all the pages of their website, so they are clearly aware of the concept of copyright, yet choose to use images they have stolen from us, a competitor, rather than pay a professional to take their own photos.
Who & Where are Sonika
We usually state the location of the sinners in our "Name & Shame" pages, however when we looked at Sonika's website for this simple basic information, we found nothing. Sure there was a "Contact Us" page, but this was a one-way you contact them, and they might just answer you form page.
We looked for an "About Us" page, and could not find one. Now we believe that any reasonable company should and does publish its contact and ownership details on its website, for a number of reason. Whenever we see a site without this information, or that makes it hard to find, we automatically treat it with suspicion. What have they got to hide?
The nearest we could get we the bald statement "Sonika is a brand name of eGold Ltd", so we could find out more by paying for a search at Companies House, but this hardly inspires confidence.
There was an e-mail address tucked away on their "Terms and Conditions of Use" page info@egoldltd.co.uk.
Domain Lookup
Domain name:
sonika.co.uk
Registrant:
Egold Ltd
Trading as:
eGold Ltd
Registrant type:
UK Limited Company, (Company number: 4878821)
Registrant's address:
Conifers 12 Downage Hendon
London
London
NW4 1AH
United Kingdom
Registrar:
Webfusion Ltd t/a 123-Reg.co.uk [Tag = 123-REG]
URL: http://www.123-reg.co.uk
Relevant dates:
Registered on: 10-Sep-2004
Renewal date: 10-Sep-2010
Last updated: 22-Jun-2009
Registration status:
Registered until renewal date.
Name servers:
ns1.wawhost.co.uk 78.129.175.20
ns2.wawhost.co.uk 78.129.175.21
WHOIS lookup made at 15:52:07 05-May-2010
Companies House Check
Name & Registered Office:
EGOLD LTD
CONIFERS, 12 DOWNAGE
HENDON
LONDON
NW4 1AH
Company No. 04878821
Status: Active
Date of Incorporation: 27/08/2003
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Company Type: Private Limited Company
Nature of Business (SIC(03)):
5248 - Other retail specialised stores
7412 - Accounting, auditing; tax consult
Accounting Reference Date: 31/12
Last Accounts Made Up To: 31/12/2008 (TOTAL EXEMPTION SMALL)
Next Accounts Due: 30/09/2010
Last Return Made Up To: 27/08/2009
Next Return Due: 24/09/2010
Last Members List: 27/08/2009
Previous Names:
No previous name information has been recorded over the last 20 years.
UK Establishment Details
There are no UK Establishments associated with this company.
Oversea Company Info
There are no Oversea Details associated with this company.
What's Wrong?
We have invested considerable time, effort, money, and other resources into creating some of the best coin photographs on the internet. We employ a number of specialist photographers, currently two of them with three photography degrees between them. Even then, we have a perpetual backlog of items waiting to be photographed, processed, and added to our websites. It is therefore extremely annoying and frustrating to find competitors stealing our images to use in direct competition with us.
We note that their domain name was registered on 10th September 2004, and "304496 requests since Saturday 18 December, 2004" which we presume was when their website went live.
Our images not only appear on the bullion products pages, but also on their monthly "What's New" pages, and also near the top left of many of their otherwise unrelated products pages.
Apart from helping them to make a product on the gold bullion coin items they directly relate to, we believe our high quality photographs help to enhance the overall appearance of their site. "Image" is very important in retailing and online business, as potential buyers will tend to trust sites which look to be professionally designed with attractive graphics.
Images and Products
Sonika uses our 1974 Krugerrand obverse photograph, together with a 1980 quarter ounce Krugerrand photograph sourced fro another of our competitors, to sell its one ounce, half ounce, quarter ounce, and tenth ounce Krugerrands.
They also use our 1989 proof Canadian Maple reverse photograph, in conjunction with an obverse photo, to sell all sizes of gold maple leaf bullion coins.
Copyright Notice
Please see our "Copyright" page for further information.
Copyright Infringements Remedies
Our suggested draft remedies for copyright abusers dependent on category - competitors, bloggers, pseudo-expert & advice sites acting as eBay & Google portals, eBay & other auction site sellers.
Other Copyright Abuse
Other Copyright Abuse
Other Web Sites
All comments about copyright also cover content of all our other websites including, but not limited to:-
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Sonika Jewellers New Products for August Page
Our Images
Obverse of 1974 Krugerrand
Reverse of 1989 Proof Canadian Maple Leaf Coin
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