HOW DO WE ENFORCE OUR DESIGN PATENT
Ok so we are dealing with an issue with the Amazon site and customer support is no help. We have a valid united states patent that we own. Now there are a few piggyback sellers that have hopped on our listing the past few weeks and we cant seem to get rid of them. We completed a few test buys and tried reporting them with no success, these products are 100% counterfeit, when we submit our violation we will just get an automated message every single time. We enrolled with brand registry and our status is currently pending but we have limited access to any tools. How can we successfully report counterfeits and have these Chinese sellers off our listing?
Is it possible to enroll in transparency with pending trademark registration?
This issue has been on going foe about a month an we are extremely frustrated with Amazon and the lack of support removing these counterfeits
HOW DO WE ENFORCE OUR DESIGN PATENT
Ok so we are dealing with an issue with the Amazon site and customer support is no help. We have a valid united states patent that we own. Now there are a few piggyback sellers that have hopped on our listing the past few weeks and we cant seem to get rid of them. We completed a few test buys and tried reporting them with no success, these products are 100% counterfeit, when we submit our violation we will just get an automated message every single time. We enrolled with brand registry and our status is currently pending but we have limited access to any tools. How can we successfully report counterfeits and have these Chinese sellers off our listing?
Is it possible to enroll in transparency with pending trademark registration?
This issue has been on going foe about a month an we are extremely frustrated with Amazon and the lack of support removing these counterfeits
0 replies
Seller_AXC06kcsKI1qG
Seller_9b9t0lBXFA4YM
The problem is you have a pending trademark. So you cannot enforce a trademark yet until it is approved.
Also same with patents. You cannot enforce a pending patent, only enforce a patent that has been approved.
Seller_24FzucbyGtgZS
You are required to protect your own intellectual property.
Basically you need a Patent Attorney to file a lawsuit on your behalf naming the piggyback sellers and Amazon as defendants. The attorney will ask for a TRO commanding Amazon to remove those unauthorized sellers.
Seller_pQ0KnuVNsqZfV
Hun, so you have many suggestions other sellers can give you, from buying from these sellers and giving negative feedback or reporting them and so on. But in the end, you are the only one who will get hurt, if these people decide to fight back, you will have stress and waste time and effort on this matter (Amazon is a Free marketplace, policy regulation). The only way to stop it is transparency code, all that information is available on Amazon Seller University, Once you have it, doesn't matter if they try to sell it on FBA or FBM at the time when they have to ship it Amazon will ask for the Transparency code if they not have it, they will have the account place on review, and the money they have in payout, reserve balance and so one will be held from 90 days and above. mostly like the accounts for these people are closed and the money is still on Amazon. The USA counterfeit policy allows any platform to not proceed with payouts if the account is flagged.
Dougal_Amazon
Hello @Seller_Vrp1PfcZQQzWv,
My name is Dougal from the Community Manger Team and I can assist with reporting patent infringement. There is a lot to unpack both here and in your not accepted complaint ID, which I have read through, so I will break it up into sections based on the questions you have asked and what I have read.
No, Transparency requires a registered TM (not pending) Take a look at the Transparency landing page, scroll to the bottom of the page for the eligibility requirements.
2 responses to this question. First, you cannot report them as counterfeit because you do not have a registered TM yet. You can however report the design infringement AND a listing violation to stop these sellers. I'll explain below:
- When you are reporting Design Patent infringement on Brand Registry and providing your patent number, you should only report the infringing offer (not all offers) AND only providing detail on how the product violates your patent. DO NOT reference that it is counterfeit because this is a different infringement type. I strongly recommend reviewing the Intellectual Property for Rights Owners. This is a very robust help page so make sure you focus primarily on the "Reporting Infringement," section as well as the "Types of notices not accepted on Amazon." These sections will provide you what you should and should not include in your submission.
- Listing violation, this is the link @Seller_AXC06kcsKI1qG provided in their first reply. Since you mentioned you have already completed test buys and found that the product you received is not the same as the product listed on the detail page, this is a "The product received is different than the product on the detail page (different version, model or product)," violation and can be reported through Report abuse found in the top left of the Account Health Dashboard on Seller Central.
I hope this helps validate some responses on this thread and provides you with some actionable steps to take while you are waiting on TM registration, which was achieved, you can report counterfeit via Report a Violation on Brand Registry.
Please let me know if you have any other questions and definitely keep me posted on your next steps and I will do my best to follow along.
Best, Dougal
Seller_E8mL3eW2WFX39
You can mail Amazon the evidence you have. You can then use that evidence to have a legal firm write a cease and desist letter to Amazon and the sellers. If all else fails you can pay to get a TRO on those sellers and that will for sure force Amazon's hand.
Seller_52pUzzgnsLDGs
Personally, I don't think you should be selling until your brand is approved and your trademark is approved, mainly to protect yourself from these cheaters.
Just as a side note, congratulations on being so intelligent and inventive to get a patent on a saleable product, but now that it is out there, available to anyone to read and copy, all someone needs to do is make one tiny change and they'll be able to build and sell their products using your ideas and hard work. I worked for a company that came up with new designs for their products all the time and they learned to never get a patent. Patents are immediately copied, changed a tiny bit, and all of the work our engineering department did to create that new product is now stolen by some one in Asia (always Asia, usually China but also Korea, Japan, and Taiwan). At least if our new products were going to be copied, we'd have a few years in the marketplace before the competition was able to get their copies off. Of course for some things patents are the only way to go. Good luck, I hope your trademark is approved soon.
Seller_z8B6sbyn6Gc53
A pending trademark/patent or anything doesn't mean anything. You only own it once it is approved. When it is approved, you can enforce it only.
Seller_08TZq9sOIaGvv
I think you may be conflating a patent and a trademark. You certainly CAN enforce your trademark, Amazon even allows it while still in pending status. Sign up with the Amazon program for it. Then do a test buy, get the evidence and then file a trademark infringement case with Amazon. Your patent (if you meant to say that) is not dealt with on amazon afaik.
