On the Amazon platform, intellectual property complaints have become a regularity, and a common cause for seller suspensions.
As an Amazon seller, you should be aware that the number of Amazon complaints pertaining to intellectual property has lately increased. If a seller notices that you’re selling a product that looks identical to theirs, they may suspect it’s a fake and submit a complaint.
More complaints have been filed against other sellers’ accounts by manufacturers and larger brand name firms. They are likely to bring an Intellectual Property complaint against you if you sell a brand name goods at a lower price than they do.
Intellectual property concerns can be complicated for Amazon sellers, but they can also force your firm to shut down if you lose your right to sell.
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What is Intellectual Property on Amazon?
Intellectual property (IP) can be broken down into three categories: Copyrights, Trademarks, and Patents.
- Trademark – A trademark is a name, symbol, or design that is used to identify the origin of products or services.
- Copyright – Works of original authorship, such as novels, poems, or musical compositions, are protected by copyright law.
- Patents- protect concepts, such as inventions and technological processes.
Amazon is committed to ensuring that items sold on its marketplaces do not infringe or violate the intellectual property (IP) rights of Rights Owners. Owners of intellectual property can report illegal content found on Amazon and provide answers to commonly asked questions about how Amazon handles infringement concerns. Any individual (such as a brand, a seller, a consumer, or a third party) who lawfully possesses intellectual property rights for the goods in issue is referred to as a Rights Owner.
You may be eligible to enrol your brand in the Amazon Brand Registry if you are a Rights Owner with a registered trademark.
What Can You Do to Protect Yourself from IP complaints as a New Amazon Seller?
It is critical that you take precautions before selling on Amazon in order to safeguard your intellectual property rights. It is in your best advantage to copyright, or trademark, your brand and logo if your future intellectual property product has not yet been registered.
Amazon Brand Registry gives you access to a variety of high – end features, such as proprietary text and picture search, predictive automation based on your complaints of suspected intellectual property rights infringement, and improved control over product listings bearing your brand name.
This time investment is worthwhile if you want to secure your photographs and descriptions, particularly on Amazon, where many people try to hijack the next hot-selling item.
How to Tackle an IP Complaint Against Your Amazon Account?
Many businesses have taken the required procedures and registered their IP appropriately. These businesses will have procedures in place to keep an eye out for infringement, and people who are lawfully selling genuine goods can be caught in the net. The IP rights are often genuine, but the allegation is not.
Amazon will suspend your seller account if there is any accusation of intellectual property violation. To begin, you must contact the seller or corporation that made the accusation.
Get retractions
It is preferable to write a letter to the sender of the infringement notice, mentioning the following points:
- You searched the whole database for comparable potential entries.
- You’ve deleted any copied images/contents/logo/trademark name that could infringe on someone else’s brand or rights.
- You’d be solely relying on your own material and photos. The items will be listed solely under your own brand name.
- Apologize in the first paragraph of the email and thank them for warning you so that you can learn ethical practises and stay on the Amazon marketplace for a long time.
Make certain that anything you write has been practised. So, before writing to them, go through your whole catalogue and delete anything that was duplicated. Never dispute with them, claiming that you are correct and that you have done nothing wrong. Amazon only acts if the vendor is shown to be incorrect.
Your account will be updated if you do this.
You persuade a brand owner or a complainant, whomever they are, to retract the complaint and submit it to Amazon from the same email address used to file it. You can reclaim your account.
All you have to do now is get traction and then submit a great plan of action to Amazon detailing what you’ve done so far and what you intend to accomplish in the future. This procedure is frequently used to restore accounts.
Prove that the complaint is baseless
Many complaints come when your account sells a product that appears to be like another, but the similarities are insufficient to be considered infringement. You’ll almost certainly need an attorney to show the corporation that your product is unique, creative, and doesn’t infringe on anyone’s intellectual property rights. It’s doubtful that Amazon will reinstate your selling powers for that item if the rights owner refuses to retract its complaint.
A lot of the time, the complaints are false. If you sell the identical goods at a lesser price, companies and manufacturers will submit IP complaints against your account. These sorts of complaints are baseless, frivolous, and an affront to the Amazon platform’s established policy.
If the corporation accusing you of infringement cannot show that you have completed all of the standards for proving infringement, there is no infringement. The complaining party will normally agree to remove the statement once it has been proved that there was no foundation for the infringement claim.
The complaining party must notify Amazon in writing that the matter has been remedied and that they are prepared to retract their complaint. A copy of this document, as well as invoices confirming your item did not infringe on anyone’s intellectual property rights, should be included in your detailed plan of action.
What if the IP complaint is legitimate?
If you are detected infringing on an IP, you must delete the listing immediately and never sell that product again unless it was purchased from an authorised reseller. If another party accuses you of infringement, Amazon will suspend your account.
The next step is to establish a detailed plan of action that recognises your mistake, the steps you took to remedy it, and the adjustments you made to your company practises to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
