Trade Mark / Brand Issue UK / EU Bad Actor Extortion Threats - Any thoughts?
Hi forums,
Looking for advice, comments, similar situations and potential outcomes.
Outline:
We trade in the UK for c10years and in the EU which is Amazon only for around 5 years
We have a brand with a registered (figurative) trade mark in the UK and brand registry on Amazon UK.
We have been applying Amazon transparency on our best selling ASINS for 4+ Years.
EU sales are in the multiple 100,000 euros bracket.
Recently a ‘bad actor’ Spanish company has registered a (word mark) trade mark in the EU with identical wording to our figuritive mark and approached us through Amazon messagng with threats to report us to Amazon and have our listings closed and account shut down alongside external legal action.
They’ve also suggested an alternative which is that we sell under licence and pay them for the licence and the transfer of their trade mark to us. (Several thousand Euros)
I don’t know if this company trades on Amazon still, they have done so and we have in the past reported them for piggy backing / selling prodcts that don’t match the description.
Initial research suggests that this ‘bad actor’ company has mutiple trade mark registrations in the EU. When searching those trade marks they all point to Amazon sellers but not connected to the same business as the one threatening us (perhaps they are linked to the director).
I suspect that this is a business model of theirs, to search Amazon, find unregistered brands and trade marks, register them and and then extort the genuine sellers.
I don’t care so much about their threats of legal action - we have a well established trade mark and brand with IP, sales, investment, advertising and uniqueness and will win any legal action BUT I’m very concerned about Amazon and don’t know what will happen should they:
1, Report a brand infringement to Amazon - what will Amazon do and would it affect our UK account if they take action on the EU accounts?
2, Attempt to take over our listings. They haven’t to date or if they have they haven’t been succesful.
3, Are we protected by Transparency in any way, I’m wondering if our Transparency registration has stopped them taking action on Amazon to date?
4, Anything else I need to consider?
As an aside - account health is perfect : VTR 100% - Feedback 98% - Policy Compliance 100% - ODR 0.05% - LS 1% - never been suspended.
Cheers all
Trade Mark / Brand Issue UK / EU Bad Actor Extortion Threats - Any thoughts?
Hi forums,
Looking for advice, comments, similar situations and potential outcomes.
Outline:
We trade in the UK for c10years and in the EU which is Amazon only for around 5 years
We have a brand with a registered (figurative) trade mark in the UK and brand registry on Amazon UK.
We have been applying Amazon transparency on our best selling ASINS for 4+ Years.
EU sales are in the multiple 100,000 euros bracket.
Recently a ‘bad actor’ Spanish company has registered a (word mark) trade mark in the EU with identical wording to our figuritive mark and approached us through Amazon messagng with threats to report us to Amazon and have our listings closed and account shut down alongside external legal action.
They’ve also suggested an alternative which is that we sell under licence and pay them for the licence and the transfer of their trade mark to us. (Several thousand Euros)
I don’t know if this company trades on Amazon still, they have done so and we have in the past reported them for piggy backing / selling prodcts that don’t match the description.
Initial research suggests that this ‘bad actor’ company has mutiple trade mark registrations in the EU. When searching those trade marks they all point to Amazon sellers but not connected to the same business as the one threatening us (perhaps they are linked to the director).
I suspect that this is a business model of theirs, to search Amazon, find unregistered brands and trade marks, register them and and then extort the genuine sellers.
I don’t care so much about their threats of legal action - we have a well established trade mark and brand with IP, sales, investment, advertising and uniqueness and will win any legal action BUT I’m very concerned about Amazon and don’t know what will happen should they:
1, Report a brand infringement to Amazon - what will Amazon do and would it affect our UK account if they take action on the EU accounts?
2, Attempt to take over our listings. They haven’t to date or if they have they haven’t been succesful.
3, Are we protected by Transparency in any way, I’m wondering if our Transparency registration has stopped them taking action on Amazon to date?
4, Anything else I need to consider?
As an aside - account health is perfect : VTR 100% - Feedback 98% - Policy Compliance 100% - ODR 0.05% - LS 1% - never been suspended.
Cheers all
0 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
Is your trademark only registered in UK ? Or in EU too ?
I didn’t think amazon accepted figurative marks for this exact reason - a word mark can supercede it
Seller_bREWJRI25O5Qk
its same here, the companies who are registering unauthorised people and there is a lot of action has to be taken here legal and authorised people are suffering