How did Temu sellers get my product photos?

Scrapers copy top-performing listings — photos, titles, descriptions — from Etsy, Amazon, Shopify stores, and Kickstarter, then factories produce a cheap approximation. If your photos appear on a listing, that's copyright infringement you can act on immediately, regardless of whether the physical product copies yours.

Can I get a Temu or AliExpress listing removed if I have no trademark or patent?

Yes, if the listing uses your photos, text, or artwork — copyright covers those automatically. What you can't easily stop without registered rights is someone manufacturing a similar product and photographing it themselves. That requires a design patent, utility patent, or trade dress claim.

How do Temu's and AliExpress's IP portals work?

Both use a two-step model: first verify your identity and rights (upload ID and evidence of ownership — your listing, copyright registration, or trademark certificate), then file complaints against specific listing URLs under that verified account. Verification takes a few days; after that, complaints process much faster.

Should I bother with zero-sale listings?

Triage by damage: listings ranking for your product's search terms or accumulating orders come first. But don't ignore the long tail forever — dozens of zero-sale copies still dilute your search presence and one of them can take off. Bulk-filing after your rights are verified makes the long tail cheap to clear.

The seller relisted the same product two days after removal. Is this normal?

Yes — relisting is standard behavior on both platforms. Keep filing under your verified rights account and cite the prior removals; repeat complaints against the same seller escalate toward store-level penalties. Automated monitoring flips the economics: detection on day one instead of month two.

Someone Is Selling My Product on Temu or AliExpress: What to Do (2026)

Your handmade or small-brand product is on Temu or AliExpress for a third of your price, using your own photos. Here's how mass-produced knockoffs happen and how to fight back effectively.

The message every small brand dreads: "Did you know your product is on Temu for $4?" You click through and there it is — your product photos, your listing title, sometimes your brand name, on a listing shipping a factory approximation of the thing you spent a year developing.

Here's the realistic playbook. It works — both platforms remove infringing listings at scale for verified rights holders — but it works differently than Etsy or Amazon, and knowing the difference saves weeks.

How your product got there

Scraping crews systematically harvest top-performing listings from Etsy, Amazon, Kickstarter, and Shopify stores — photos, titles, descriptions — and pass them to factories that produce a lookalike at commodity cost. The listing goes up with your photos because your photos convert. This matters legally: even before any question about the physical product, the listing itself infringes your copyright in the photos and text, and that's the claim that removes listings fastest.

Step 1: Register in the IP portals (once)

Unlike Etsy's one-off form, both platforms use a verified-rights-holder model. Temu's IP Protection Portal and AliExpress's IPP platform (ipp.alibabagroup.com, which covers AliExpress, Alibaba.com, and 1688) both require you to create an account, verify your identity, and register your rights — your copyrighted works, trademark certificates, or patents — before you can file complaints. Verification takes a few days. Front-load it: register your best product photos and any trademarks now, not after the next theft.

For copyrighted photos, "registration" in the portal means uploading the originals and evidence you published them first — your live listing URL and dated files are usually enough. No government copyright registration is required.

Step 2: File against listings, triaged by damage

Once verified, complaints are quick: paste listing URLs, select which registered right they infringe, add a sentence of explanation. Triage matters because copies multiply — search both platforms for your product name, brand name, and (via reverse-image search) your hero photos, then hit the listings that rank for your search terms or show real order counts first. Zero-sale copies are lower priority but worth clearing in bulk sweeps; any of them can take off, and they dilute your search presence meanwhile.

The hard truth about design-only knockoffs:

If a seller manufactures a similar product and photographs it themselves, copyright won't reach them. Stopping the product itself requires registered rights in the design — a design patent, utility patent, or trademark/trade dress. For small brands, this is the strongest argument for filing trademark applications early: it converts "annoying lookalike" into "removable infringement."

Step 3: Manage the relist cycle

Removal typically takes days to two weeks per complaint. Then the seller relists, or a different storefront in the same network picks it up — this is normal, not failure. Keep filing under your verified account and reference prior removals: both platforms escalate repeat complaints toward store-level penalties, and verified rights holders' complaints process faster over time. The brands that win treat this as a monitoring loop, not an incident: IPzest scans Temu, AliExpress, and 18 other marketplaces daily for image and title matches against your products and drafts complaints in bulk, from $68/month with a 7-day free trial.

Two adjacent fronts to watch: the same theft crews run standalone fake storefronts with your photos, and their listings often ride paid ads on Meta and Google — both removable through separate channels covered in our marketplace guides.