Amazon Trademark Infringement

[techstore21]

Hi,

I wonder if you can help me with a problem that is driving me mad. This week I received the following notification from amazon:

"Greetings from Amazon.

We are writing to inform you that these offers have been removed from our Amazon.co.uk site:

ASIN: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

We took this action because we were notified by the rights owner that the items infringe their intellectual property rights. Per our policies, items that infringe another party's copyright, patent, trademark, design right, database right, or other intellectual property or other proprietary right are prohibited. For more information on this policy, search on “Prohibited Content” in seller Help.

To resolve this dispute, we suggest that you contact the rights owner directly:

Gmail email address

If you resolve this matter with the rights owner, please advise them to contact us at to withdraw their complaint. We ask that you refrain from posting items manufactured by this rights owner until you have resolved this matter.

Amazon cannot comment on the validity, availability, or appropriateness of any legal rights you may have, nor provide legal advice. However, if you believe the complaint is unjustified, you may consider pursuing a legal remedy to prevent the submitter from issuing future unjustified intellectual property complaints against your offers.

Note that failure to comply with our policies may result in the removal of your Amazon.co.uk selling privileges.

We appreciate your cooperation and thank you for selling on Amazon.co.uk.
Regards,

Seller Performance Team"

I checked out the ASIN's in question and they are all products that use our brand name which has been registered with the Intellectual Property Office. We own all the EAN numbers and the trademark has been published for nearly a year now. I personally designed and registered the brand at the start of the year, we have been selling under this brand name for a good few years now.

The other seller who has reported us for this refuses to tell us what issue he has with and is being very rude and agressive. I can not understand how amazon can remove these items when this person has absolutely not IP rights to these products.

I have tried contacting amazon and showing them on the IPO's website that we own the trademark and even attached the trademark certificate itself but keep getting the same standardised email reply. We are currently in our busiest two weeks of the year and want this resolved ASAP, does anyone know how I can get through to someone in the correct amazon department to show that we are the legal owners of these products?

Thanks

 

[The Resolver]

PM me - I have been investigating similar issues with Amazon (and also now eBay) for others and have some expert assistance and access. At least you have been told who is the complainant and why so you can investigate. eBay don't always disclose even that information in VERO disputes out of fear, I was told, that their sources may be compromised. I rather suspect eBay's approach to fair resolution and justice may well breach the IPR of the estate of the late Franz Kafka!

 

[Jeff FV]

Whilst I sympathise with the OP in this instance, I am pleased to hear that Amazon (and eBay?) take this seriously and act as they do.

We have been on the other side of the coin in the last few months, finding our designs ripped off and copied and on sale on other products on both Not on the High Street (NOTHS) and Etsy (different products, different sellers each time).

As soon as we discovered the infringements we contacted both sites (NOTHS & Etsy) asking for the items to be removed immediately, with details and evidence of the infringement etc. Sadly, both sites took no action other than to tell us to take it up with the individual seller (which we did and they took down their copies of our products) and absolved themselves of all responsibility.

I am sure that those third party sites (NOTHS, Etsy etc.) must be vicariously liable for the products that they sell through their sites, but, alas, I don't have pockets deep enough to legally challenge them.

So, whilst I can see how it can be open to abuse (as it appears in this case), hats off to Amazon for at least trying to enforce IP rights.

Jeff

 

[kulture]

From the sound of it you are the rights owner. From whom did you purchase the EANs? If you purchased then from the correct organisation (i.e. gs1uk.org) then the prefix is registered to you and your company. This is a powerful argument to say that you are the rights owner for all items with the EAN prefix registered to you.

If you used a 3rd party seller then all is not lost, you then have to use the registered trademark etc to prove your rights.

If you do this properly, and comprehensively, you may get the other seller BANNED from Amazon.

 

[kulture]

Amazon do not enforce rights as such. They do not protect sellers or rights holders. The only thing they protect is themselves and their reputation. They do not investigate, they do not look into the validity or not of any claim. They simply remove the listings and invite you to sort it out with the other seller.

Anyone at any time could make such a claim against a seller. The first you hear about it is when you find yourself suspended. It can cripple or destroy a seller. So please, do not compliment Amazon on their aggressive take down approach.

 

[techstore21]

Yes the barcodes were purchased from GS1 and are registered to our company name. I have repeatedly made this clear to amazon, attached trademark certificates, company incorporation certificates everything that would be needed to rightfully prove that we have not done anything wrong. Yet everytime I get the same reply asking me to contact the other person to resolve the dispute.

It is disgusting, I have invested everything in to my business and I am now worried on a daily babsis that I will be suspended. It would help if I could actually talk to someone in the correct department but as you have said it seems they really do not care.

 

[Jeff FV]

Anyone at any time could make such a claim against a seller. The first you hear about it is when you find yourself suspended. It can cripple or destroy a seller. So please, do not compliment Amazon on their aggressive take down approach.

I think that we shall have to agree to disagree on this one.

I agree that Amazon are only protecting themselves, but having been the victim of copyright/IP infringements and have other (NOTHS & Etsy) third party sites say, "sorry, not our problem" and carry on selling the carp, knock off products, damaging our brand, I'd have been happier if they (NOTHS/Etsy) had taken Amazon's approach.

 

[kulture]

Fair enough. I can understand your frustration when you have a legitimate complaint ignored, but consider the op's problem where a person copying them gets the legitimate seller taken down. Imagine your anger if someone stopped you selling your own brand because they could not be bothered to even do a simple sanity check on the accusation. Imagine your anger if the people infringing on your rights were allowed to continue whilst you are stopped.

 

[AbsolutNut]

Fair enough. I can understand your frustration when you have a legitimate complaint ignored, but consider the op's problem where a person copying them gets the legitimate seller taken down. Imagine your anger if someone stopped you selling your own brand because they could not be bothered to even do a simple sanity check on the accusation. Imagine your anger if the people infringing on your rights were allowed to continue whilst you are stopped.

Wholeheartedly agree. We have experienced both sides of the coin infringed against and also alleged infringer. It never ceases to amaze me the robotic and quite frankly ridiculous parrot responses you often get from Amazon in some cases.

Quite, if you provide your IP registration number clearly showing the brand, a child could work out that you are the brand owner. Any party that misuses the Amazon violation reporting system in this way deserves to be hauled through the courts. We certainly would if we ever found this and would sue their sorry hinds.

Welcome to the many and varied pitfalls of Amazon.

Steve

 

[dtchpuk]

Hi,

I just came across this post and have had the same problem, can you give me any advise as to how you were able to resolve it?

Regards,

David

 

[Caz12]

Could you not contact the other seller and tell them that if they do not remove the complain you will initiate legal action and sue for loss of earnings?

 

[dtchpuk]

Yes this is what I usually do and works quite well.
However I have just had an ASIN removed for apparently infringing on a trademark that I own... I am trying to get it reinstated but as this thread is a couple of years old I was just wondering how they were able to resolve this issue?

 

[BrandUK]

If you need a ipo lawyer pm me. We use a guy who had won awards recently for his work .

 

[dtchpuk]

Thanks for the offer, but we have a lawyers that deals with it. But would just be interested to hear if any other sellers have any suggestions for best practise to deal with these issues..?