BILLY SHIELDS: This little storage unit in Oilville is a hub of creativity.

The center of a cottage industry you may not even know about.

MITRA PALMER: We manufacture rubber stamps.

So what rubber stamps are for, in my industry, is for cardmaking.

People take these and they put ink on them, stamp them on a piece of paper, color them in, make greeting cards for their family and friends, use it for scrapbooking.

BILLY SHIELDS: At its height Mitra Palmer's business, Impression Obsession, made $3 million worth of those creative rubber stamps.

MITRA PALMER: We manufacture them from scratch, We have the entire time.

They are manufactured, it's a very tedious process.

Not very high tech.

It's been the same for years and years and years.

BILLY SHIELDS: It's a business Palmer created from scratch, too, while she worked as a high school teacher in Williamsburg.

MITRA PALMER: We started the business in a super naive way.

At the time, it was 1997, there was no direct to consumer sales on the internet.

There- the internet barely existed.

So, in this naive way, I went and found one of the main stamp companies that was selling at the time, found their store locator list on their website, copied all of the addresses for all the stores they sold to, printed a catalog up.

My in-laws were in printing so that was easy.

And sent out a catalog to 1,800 stamp stores at the time.

BILLY SHIELDS: But now, it's time to close up shop.

She says COVID made it hard to find employees.

The hours were long, and she says designs very similar to what she sold through her online catalog were popping up on other shopping websites.

And it's not an isolated problem.

Its pretty common for folks in the U.S. who run businesses to see their products, or spoofs of their products, end up on Chinese websites.

BILLY SHIELDS: It begs the question, what can a mom and pop outfit in a niche industry do to protect their creations?

As Palmer packs up her business.

We asked that question to two experts in intellectual property.

Most websites of any heft will have what's known as a notice and takedown procedure, BILLY SHIELDS: but enforcement is another question.

According to one law professor, Palmer should also enjoy copyright protections for her stamp designs, but that comes at a price.

I dont know how much money is involved, but it gets pretty costly pretty fast.

BILLY SHIELDS: Meanwhile, Palmer says this past Christmas season was her last and perhaps her hardest.

MITRA PALMER: And this year, I recognize I had to draw on my line of credit for the first time ever.

Because things are just tough.

BILLY SHIELDS: And she points out that the business wasn't getting easier as time went on.

MITRA PALMER: I've always been like, if we go full circle and I have to start making the stamps again, because I haven't physically been the one making the stamps for a long time, its the time because I'm 58 and so... BILLY SHIELDS: She's retiring now from a business that she kept going for 26 years.

Billy Shields, VPM News.