Fair Use of Someone else’s Trademark
Hello Sellers,
I hope everyone had a great weekend! 😄
We've recently seen sellers report cases of trademark infringement, which may qualify as an exception to Amazon's intellectual property policy, as below:
As per Amazon intellectual property policy, sellers can use someone else’s trademark in the following circumstances:
• When selling authentic goods, a seller may use a trademarked name to list those authentic goods. For example, a seller who lists an authentic “Pinzon” product is not necessarily infringing on the owner of the Pinzon trademark because the seller is using the trademark to identify an authentic product.
• When using a trademarked word in its ordinary dictionary, descriptive meaning.
• When selling authentic goods that can be customized by the buyer (that is, print-on-demand) using the seller’s own equipment. For example, a seller prints a custom, personalized message or picture on an authentic “Callaway” golf ball.
I'm working on each of your specific call outs in different threads.
I want to use this discussion exclusively for educational purposes.
How would you explain use of someone else’s trademark policy exemption to the seller who decides to start selling on Amazon?
Feel free to provide examples!
Waiting for your advices 🤓
Thanks,
Julia.
Fair Use of Someone else’s Trademark
Hello Sellers,
I hope everyone had a great weekend! 😄
We've recently seen sellers report cases of trademark infringement, which may qualify as an exception to Amazon's intellectual property policy, as below:
As per Amazon intellectual property policy, sellers can use someone else’s trademark in the following circumstances:
• When selling authentic goods, a seller may use a trademarked name to list those authentic goods. For example, a seller who lists an authentic “Pinzon” product is not necessarily infringing on the owner of the Pinzon trademark because the seller is using the trademark to identify an authentic product.
• When using a trademarked word in its ordinary dictionary, descriptive meaning.
• When selling authentic goods that can be customized by the buyer (that is, print-on-demand) using the seller’s own equipment. For example, a seller prints a custom, personalized message or picture on an authentic “Callaway” golf ball.
I'm working on each of your specific call outs in different threads.
I want to use this discussion exclusively for educational purposes.
How would you explain use of someone else’s trademark policy exemption to the seller who decides to start selling on Amazon?
Feel free to provide examples!
Waiting for your advices 🤓
Thanks,
Julia.
126 replies
Seller_sg54Fq7GfBZzn
Well this is interesting isnt it ! As Amazon are unfortunately the worst selling platform when it comes to trademarks.
Fair usage - ok we sell steampunk goggles and they are often called Cyberpunk. They were listed before Cyberpunk even existed as a game.
Cue Amazon bots, wham have 20 violations for using the term Cyberpunk as a descriptor.
So we contacted CD Red Projeckt and their solicitors who sent us a letter saying that they had never asked Amazon to do a takedown and that our listings use of the term Cyberpunk did NOT in anyway infringe on their trademark.
Would Amazon seller support listen ? not a chance. Amazon forced us to remove the term, even though we had proof from the owner this was not an issue.
Seller support didnt want to know.
Its the same as Amazons own policy
"when you make something that is compatible with or for use with a product you can reference it as long as it is described as such, so for example for use with LG mobile phone model 9500i"
WRONG - you will 100 per cent get a violation.
We sell 3D glasses, which are Passive so work with LG 3D Passive tvs.
The title was Ultra - Passive 3D TV Glasses for use with LG and Sony passive 3D tvs.
Wham violation central.
Did seller support want to help ? NOPE, just told remove the term or the violation stays.
Its far from fair, and far from ideal.
Both are perfectly legal and acceptable use of trademarks, but Amazon wont have either
Seller_Fg2fqaWOnEtha
And that is something that it's very very useful to customers, it's important to know that the product you are buying works with something you already have.
Seller_TK2OUpwGNKKsN
Unfortunately, I haven't found a way of "using a trademarked word in its ordinary dictionary, descriptive meaning." it is automatically flagged by I assume 'bots'
When creating an item I used the term 'lush' as in the adjective to describe the product. The detail page was removed because of the Brand 'LUSH'.
I appealed explaining the usage. I even pointed to the manufacturer website where the description also uses the ordinary descriptive meaning. Denied.
Appealed again with further explanation and example. Denied.
Seller_ZJhFeE3tNKzfh
What about this one @Julia_Amzn?
Products removed because amazon seem to think that nike owns the three lions crest
Nike don't own the TM on the England logo - so it would be beneficial to understand why users are being hit with IP complaints on it in relation to NIKE.
While I don't doubt there are some fake items littering the catalogue featuring the England Three Lions logo - there are a large number that are officially endorsed by the FA - but are nothing to do with NIKE.
Seller_EkGoiphKgUnUI
I think it would be helpful to provide us with EXACT TERMS that we can use when contacting Seller Support, as I'm pretty sure that no matter what wording we use, we will likely get the same template responses back...
Thanks for making this post, there are many things we struggle with on Amazon and having posts like this should help us all to overcome some of these hurdles.
Seller_SnOCWghkxvh9k
The message to new sellers is the policy is reasonable and clear BUT Amazon's application of it defies logic. We sell cross stitch kits. One of them is of a picture of a river crossing and is entitled "Ford Way". That's not allowed - we had a violation for it as, according to Amazon , it infringes Ford Motor Company's trademark. No-one looking for anything to do with Ford cars would ever think it did or get confused it would relate to a car. "Ford" is a common word found in the English Dictionary. Despite pointing this out we had no option but to change the title if we wanted to carry on selling it. End result we have no sales of that kit.
Julia_Amzn
Hello @Seller_SnOCWghkxvh9k,
Thank you for providing this example.
Do you mind sharing ASIN number?
Best,
Julia.
Seller_SnOCWghkxvh9k
Thanks Julia The ASIN is B0059TV7YU and the Case ID 8400207032
Seller_ZJhFeE3tNKzfh
here's another...
Scalextrix Quantum of Solace Set
The quality of the images on the listing aside - there is no other way to describe that set. One assumes Scalextrix Bond license may have expired, but the product was and still is a Scalextrix 007 Quantum of Solace set.
How else would one describe it?
Seller_9EVIA75XXLsLl
Julia,
You say you've 'recently seen sellers report cases of trademark infringement, which may qualify as an exception to Amazon's intellectual property policy'. This isn't 'recent', this has been going on for years. It's a constant, endless, running battle with Amazon's bots yanking listings and Seller Support taking weeks / months / hundreds of messages to reinstate them.
You also ask how to explain the 'within policy' use of someone else's trademark to new sellers. I strongly suspect what you're actually after is how it can be explained to Seller Support. I noticed your involvement in other threads about this; I'm presuming you've looked at the case ids provided, seen what sellers have to deal with and realised the scale of this issue.
The truth is that the policy IS clear and transparent - but Amazon Seller Support simply doesn't follow it. It appears there's a step in Seller Support's training / procedures which means they will not reinstate a listing if the offending term is still evident. It doesn't matter how many times you direct them to the policy, they're not actually following the policy, they're following the flowchart for this task - which apparently doesn't include the check whether the trademark is being used in its dictionary definition meaning.
Of course, none of this would be an issue if the whole 'suspected infringement' process wasn't such a mess. When bots are yanking listings based on a single word with no context and no human overview, collateral damage is going to be huge. Amazon isn't using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, it's a full-on orbital strike.
Anyway, rather than just complaining - and because you want this thread to be educational - I'm going to offer some suggestions for improvement.
1) Reassess the training / procedural documentation for the 'reinstate infringing listing' task. Make sure the process Seller Support are following matches the policy.
2) Send each 'suspected' infringement for manual assessment before recording the violation. You will have enough of these suspected infringements to form a team specialised in handling them who are trained properly. You can monitor the workload of this team and the false positive rate to judge the efficacy of these bots. That alone will be illuminating.
3) Remove the policy violation impact from suspected infringements that haven't been manually assessed. As it stands, sellers' accounts are being trashed by the actions of a badly written bot with no oversight. Sellers are guilty until proven innocent.
4) Completely remove the impact of the 'suspected infringements' once the violation has been appealed. We have 20 violations with medium impact right now because we're a 'repeat offender'. We haven't actually offended once but a successful appeal doesn't appear to remove the stain of that violation.
5) Remove the 'suspected infringement' process completely. Not once out of the thousands (literally) of suspected infringements we've had, have we actually infringed a trademark. If a brand suspects we're infringing their trademark, they can formally file a claim against us - then we have legal options for our response.
One final thing - despite the obvious frustration coming across in my tone, I'm genuinely pleased that someone has finally recognised the issue and is hopefully taking some steps to deal with it. If you manage to resolve this long-running issue, statues will be raised in your honour.
Seller_YcVj3IObF7ZOZ
And todays cut and paste email received at 1513. this is getting beyond a joke!
Seller_IQo80d99W2DzP
I agree with many other comments:
Bots do not work, and neither does SS with Copy and Paste replies, often teh same exact wording from another operative, when raised again. They do not tend to fix anything, or it takes a lot of nagging.
Examples as asked:
We have one now, 'Sony' is supposed to be on the listing somewhere, says a violation, but we have checked the listing and nowhere does it say 'Sony'
We had another that said 'Sony' in a bullet point, it was not implying it was a Sony item, but used 'Connect to Sony Xperia'. we had others previously that the maker of the item shows 'Connect to iPhone' (they paid Apple a fee to show such), but still not acceptable to Amazon. It is helpful for Buyers to know if the speaker will work with their phone, but Amazon wants that helpful information removed, so then the Buyer guesses and unhappy if it does not work.
Many listings are years old, some no longer stocked. Yet they can count against you, before Amazon wanted 'Compatible with xxxx' (xxxx being the brand name). It should be new listings must conform, old ones ask to alter, not a violation, it used to be 'Connect to xxxx' now they want the wording changed, but impossible to check many 1000's of listings, especially when not in the header title.
Often SS just say brand registry issue, so cannot change it, but then demand it to be changed, when impossible to alter. Again, should not be a violation, and SS should be able to overide and alter such issues.
Another mad example. We were selling a Walt Disney Mickey Mouse Telephone. Amazon were demanding that Walt Disney himself wrote to us to say his name could be used (he died long ago of course). Like most Disney items, they are a Licenced Product, so not made by the Disney Company, but they get paid to officially use the name, but Amazon then want a letter from the Disney Company, who the Seller has no contact, and Amazon will not accept details from the Licence Holder. In the end we removed everything other than to say 'Mouse Phone', and removed all the photos, except one without any information on it. Removed all bullet points, except to show Mouse Phone. We provided them photos of the box all sides, manual, item, etc. Then they say, ok, it is a Licenced product, and allow it back online, by that time, the listing was a wreck, so not selling the item any longer.
You can see why Chinese Sellers especially make up a brand name, buy generic items, pretend it is their brand and sell those on Amazon, causing confusion for Buyers with 20 identical items, but all on separate listings, 1 from each Seller with a made up brand
Seller_E2jz19FSru7pO
I have a violation waiting to be removed because I sell Apple Cinnamon Soy Wax Melts, apparently I'm breaching Apples copyright!
It's laughable.
Seller_jG3UXOpPuTUgN
Very interesting this. I sell tech items, ALWAYS genuine original manaufacturer gear. Laptops, desktops, parts etc etc. I went through a phase of having loads of my items withdrawn for 'intelecutral property rights' or using a brand name without permission. Now, the products i sell and sold on are products listed already on amazon, i NEVER create listings - far to much hassle. When i list a genuine product, nothing written in my descriptions would give any other reason for it not to be, are they withdrawn?
Would it be sour grapes as i am usually the cheapest by a long way.
