Trademark Infringement Claim - Status of Trademark "Awaiting Examination."
Hi everyone,
I’m hoping someone can offer advice on an issue we’re currently facing. Recently, another seller filed a design trademark for a product with a similar design to one we’ve been selling for some time. This seller then registered the trademark with the Brand Registry and submitted a trademark infringement claim against us, which resulted in Amazon removing our ASINs.
The trademark they filed is only three weeks old, and its status is still "Awaiting Examination." When I contacted Amazon Customer Support, I was told that, despite the trademark being pending, it can still be enforced through the Brand Registry program. This doesn’t seem accurate based on my understanding of how Brand Registry works, and it feels like a misuse of the system.
We’ve submitted multiple appeals to have the ASINs reinstated, explaining the situation, but we keep receiving canned responses telling us to contact the rights owner and have them retract the claim. Has anyone dealt with something similar or have any advice on how to navigate this?
To clarify, we don’t have a trademark for the product name itself, only for our overall brand name.
Thanks in advance for any insights!
Trademark Infringement Claim - Status of Trademark "Awaiting Examination."
Hi everyone,
I’m hoping someone can offer advice on an issue we’re currently facing. Recently, another seller filed a design trademark for a product with a similar design to one we’ve been selling for some time. This seller then registered the trademark with the Brand Registry and submitted a trademark infringement claim against us, which resulted in Amazon removing our ASINs.
The trademark they filed is only three weeks old, and its status is still "Awaiting Examination." When I contacted Amazon Customer Support, I was told that, despite the trademark being pending, it can still be enforced through the Brand Registry program. This doesn’t seem accurate based on my understanding of how Brand Registry works, and it feels like a misuse of the system.
We’ve submitted multiple appeals to have the ASINs reinstated, explaining the situation, but we keep receiving canned responses telling us to contact the rights owner and have them retract the claim. Has anyone dealt with something similar or have any advice on how to navigate this?
To clarify, we don’t have a trademark for the product name itself, only for our overall brand name.
Thanks in advance for any insights!
1 reply
Emet_Amazon
Hello @Seller_SKIr9lmaZPVxn,
Thank you for posting your concerns with an intellectual property complaint from a brand or rights owner.
Per our amazon brand registry help page, to be eligible for brand registry the brand must have one of the following:
- An active registered trademark in each country where you would like to enroll
- A pending trademark application that is filed through Amazon IP Accelerator
- A trademark that is pending registration in a subset of accepted trademark offices
Thus, if another seller registered their brand, and meets all listed requirements, they would qualify and have said protections.
What exactly was requested when you received the complaint? Depending on the type or severity of the situation we may be able to accept documents such as invoices that show your products are associated to the concerned intellectual property confirming there is no infringement. More serious situation will require that you have a letter of authorization issued by the brand or rights owner, or that they retract their complaint. If these cannot be provided or do not meet our requirements, the listing will remain deactivated until resolved.
I would ask that you post your original notice from when this complaint was received, this will help me offer more guidance on the situation or possible next steps.
The forums community and I are here to support you. Please let us know how we can help you from this point forward.
Emet.
