Hello guys!
I don’t know if someone asked this question before but is it allowed to sell anime merchandise such as t-shirts, mugs, etc. with pictures of Sailor Moon or Pokemon from AliExpress?
There seems to be a ton of cool stuff on it but I am a bit afraid about copyrights. I saw some other stores selling them as well but are they just being reckless or is this an okay thing to do?
-Niels
Hello, @Niels_2 .
Elias here with Shopify Support. Thank you for the question and I will be happy to clarify.
We understand copyrights or intellectually protected can be concerning, especially when there are many products from Aliexpress that may be intellectually protected. While these products from Aliexpress are not supported on the Shopify Payments gateway as indicated on Shopify Payments Terms of Service, you are able to use Shopify’s platform combined with a third-party payment gateways (ie. Authorize.Net or EMB).
If you are applying for a merchant account from a third-party payment gateway, we recommend getting in touch with them directly. Since each payment gateway may differ slightly, it’s important to share the details of your business and products with them so they can determine if they are the right fit for your store.
Alternatively, there are suppliers that are licensed and you would be able to sell their products using their reseller’s license. For this, you’ll want to inquire with the supplier directly and inquire about their licenses. Aliexpress suppliers will likely not have this. MXED is a dropship app that are licensed to sell pop culture products if you’re interested. They do have restrictions, such as regional restrictions, they can only sell within the US. I recommend getting in touch with the app developer for further details, you can reach out to the developers directly through the contact information found in the Support section of the app’s page.
I hope this helps clarify the copyright concerns and provides suggestions for you to explore. If you have any further questions on this topic, feel free to respond to this thread and I’ll be happy to help.
Good afternoon -
This is my first time in the game and trying to sell products. I have been wanting to sell anime and I have been seeing the same conversations about getting licensed and etc. I have questions on where I can become a reseller and get my business going. I have no products of my own, and I want to avoid having my page be taken down.
I’ve seen some conversations about MXED, but I can’t seem to access this site. Does anyone have any tips on where I can start my search and get my inventory together? Also, does anyone have any tips in general on what I should look for with this venture?
Thanks for your help!
Hey, @Ace1907 .
Thank you for joining the thread!
I understand you’re looking to sell anime product and obtain a license to sell them. While I’m not able to provide that level of legal advice, as these regulations can vary between states or countries. However, I do recommend speaking with the intellectual property owners of the anime you’d like to sell, or checking with a local legal advisor in your region. This way, you can have the most accurate information based on where you’re operating from to start your business.
I don’t have a specific list of suppliers that can help you source products; nevertheless, there are many dropshipping apps in our App store, so I’d recommend checking them out. We also have a blog, Find a Product to Sell, that provides suggestions for how you can source products for your store.
With that being said, based on what I know about MXED is that they are a third-party reseller and they have licensing rights in the US - which enables you sell the products they carry in the US. However, since they are a third-party supplier, I’m not sure why their website is inaccessible at the moment. While their app is no longer available in our App Store, I was able to find their contact email support@mxedapp.com. I’d recommend trying to reach out to them through this email and see how they can support your business.
Do you have any local suppliers that you can speak with as well?
Good morning!
Saw that thread and have a similar question. I wanna sell anime merch like custom 7 panel hats and need to know how legal it will be? Maybe I need to get somewhere license or etc. Of course, I read your answers but can’t clearly understand MXED. I heard that it’ll be no problem if I change titles, but it sounds weird. Many stores are selling this stuff and don’t have trouble with the law, but they don’t wanna tell me about it, I asked face to face. Will appreciate all of your answers.
Greetings, @vladis .
Thank you for joining the thread.
I understand you’re inquiring about the legality of selling anime merchandise. MXED is a dropshipping app that has licensing to allow you to sell the anime products that they carry. However, since this thread is quite old, MXED is no longer available from what I can see. Also, I’m not seeing any anime merchandise on the Custom 7 panel hats.
That being said, I was able to find an article that may be able to help point you in the right direction for sourcing or creating your own anime products, and then selling them legally. In short, you need to obtain permission from the parent company/copyright holders of the anime you’re looking to sell. For more information, please take a look here: ‘Dropshipping Anime Products What Are The Legal Ways?’.
Do you already have a supplier for your products?
Hi @Elias
Are we able to get a list of references with suppliers that have legal abilities to allow resale ?
Hi, @Shawn142 .
Thank you for joining the thread!
I’m afraid we don’t have a list of reference with suppliers available. However, you can find several suggestions from this wholesale forum: Anime Wholesale Suppliers - Trade Distrubutors of Japanese Anime. From there, I’d contact the suppliers and check if they have license that allows you to resale.
I’d love to know if you can find what you’re looking for with this list of suppliers. Keep me posted!
Hey I have created my new store i have imported anime fig and hoodies from ali express through Dser and Cj Dropshiping can you tell me how can i check if they’re legit or not through their licence business info I sent message to them but it don’t seems they would reply early
Hey, @Animemerchinfo .
Thank you for joining the thread and posting this question!
I’m unable to confirm the authenticity of your products as there is simply too many suppliers on AliExpress. For this reason, we’d recommend getting in touch directly with each of your suppliers so you have the most accurate information for moving forward.
Typically, there isn’t a restriction on the types of products you can dropship. However, the problem generally comes down to what you can sell in your country or state as well as whether your payment gateway can support certain products on your store. For example, intellectual property or copyright protected content, such as anime or anime characters, aren’t supported on our payment gateway, Shopify Payments, so you will need to find a third-party payment gateway to support your business. If you’d like to learn more about the legality of dropshipping, then we’d recommend taking a look at this third-party guide by Dropified - Legal Issues Concerning Products.
Since it looks like you’re just starting out with dropshipping, then I’d also encourage taking a look at our guide on dropshipping - The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping. Furthermore, if you also need to find a payment gateway for your store, then please review our list of supported payment gateways for your region.
That being said, do you have a marketing plan prepared for your business?
I got Reply From them They all are selling illegal copyrigted Products I also try to contact the copyright owner and they are not answering I have prepared all the marketing plan but it seems I m struggling to find right suppiler. I want to dropship the product to International So if I sell copyrighted product to all over the world then do i get sue? I am from India and I research a lot I search the whole Internet Some Says You need license Some say you need license supplier and I saw bunch of shopify anime merch website and they are doing illegal things but no one is taking Action Against them And I am planning To Create Brand and I am Confused Some says the license worth minimum 50k$ And I dont Know what to do and What charges are in India if someone found guilty
Hey, @Animemerchinfo .
Thank you for following up!
We aren’t able to provide legal advice as the regulations can vary between countries and/or states. Instead, we’d encourage speaking to a legal advisor in your area in order for you to obtain the most accurate information for starting your business. You can also review the Shopify Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy with the advisor as it can help you can formulate a plan for moving forward with your store.
That being said, there are some third-party blogs, such as Dropshipping Anime Products What Are The Legal Ways?, which covers this topic and they can help point you in the right direction. This blog touches on how to create a business proposal so that you can try getting a business license from the owner to sell their anime merchandise.
If you have any other questions on this topic, don’t hesitate to let me know!