Amazon auto-rejecting infringment reports and not allowing any way to appeal!
I have had a problem with counterfeits in the past, so I got a trademark for my brand from the USPTO, as well as getting Amazon Brand Registered. I also got copyrights on the text on my products. I've been selling on Amazon about 10 years, been brand registered for about 5, now suddenly my infringement reports are just bouncing right back as rejected as soon as submitted.
I tried to open a case or escalate to have someone actually look at the listings and the only response I get is I have to make a new report. Well now I've made many reports, for both copyright and trademark infringement and I feel like I'm beating my head against the wall. If this fails, I'll have to report this to the U.S. Copyright Office or the National Intellectual Property Rights Office and see if they can take take action on Amazon for failing to enforce laws on their platform. Is this the result of A.I.? Clearly no human looked at the listings or the violations would have been very obvious.
Amazon auto-rejecting infringment reports and not allowing any way to appeal!
I have had a problem with counterfeits in the past, so I got a trademark for my brand from the USPTO, as well as getting Amazon Brand Registered. I also got copyrights on the text on my products. I've been selling on Amazon about 10 years, been brand registered for about 5, now suddenly my infringement reports are just bouncing right back as rejected as soon as submitted.
I tried to open a case or escalate to have someone actually look at the listings and the only response I get is I have to make a new report. Well now I've made many reports, for both copyright and trademark infringement and I feel like I'm beating my head against the wall. If this fails, I'll have to report this to the U.S. Copyright Office or the National Intellectual Property Rights Office and see if they can take take action on Amazon for failing to enforce laws on their platform. Is this the result of A.I.? Clearly no human looked at the listings or the violations would have been very obvious.
28 replies
Jim_Amazon
Hi there @Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
I just took a look into the ASINs you're reporting within Brand Registry! I do have a couple of questions here, as I'm not an expert in copyright law or anything, what does your copyright state that you own? Is it the name of that prayer or the prayer itself? Also, I can see you have products that are similar to the ones you're reporting. Is your goal here to report these products to have them removed?
Thank you!
Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
The goal is to have them removed. My copyright is for the prayer itself (as well as the title/name of the prayer), and each product here as it printed on the actual product. They are infringing on my copyright. Having this removed has never been an issue in the past, and my products aren't similar, they're identical, except for one where they modified one of the American flags on the back into a Canadian flag, and another where the saint on the police coin was changed, as well as the prayer. They're counterfeiters, trying to replicate my products and sell them under another brand.
Also, if you go to the USPTO website at the following link and look up "Hero's Valor", you will see it is my registered trademark as well. I have also reported these products for trademark infringement, but that report bounced back as well.
Never mind, it isn't letting me post a non-Amazon URL, but search USPTO TESS, and you'll find the search page, which will lead to my name and registration number. Thank you in advance!
PS: I'm a fellow Amazonian. After being a seller for a few years, I decided I wanted to see Amazon from the inside and at CLT3. trayledw.
Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
I'd like to add, just to be clear, all three are off limits. Using the title of the prayer or using the brand name Hero's Valor (unless referencing and giving credit to the products and not being used to make money), any reproduction of the prayer (as in the case of the coins), especially in cases where the party is trying to take credit for ownership of any of the three.
I also need to add the Infringement reporting system is clearly broken! A person doing the job would recognize whatever this automated system is not, and then there is no way to escalate or appeal the decision. I don't know if you can see the chat I had with Bommareddy Vishnu Vardhan from Selling Partner Support, but the only solution offered is to make another report, which also doesn't work. I also found out you make enough reports (that they determine are false(even if they are legitimate), you lose your right to make reports from what I read. Something needs to be done about the system, and a way to appeal or escalate within the current system. Thank you again.
Jim_Amazon
I was not expecting you to be a fellow Amazonian, that's pretty cool!
Okay so to break this down a bit further, when I look in your Brand Registry account, I only see that you've submitted these ASINs through Copyright. I am not a Copyright attorney so I wonder if submitting as a counterfeit report would be more effective, especially since I can see your product has been around for longer. Are you familiar with the test buy process?
Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
I'm familiar with it, but their own pictures clearly show my copyrighted work on their products. I am the source of the products and I don't sell to anyone, except for selling on Amazon. Amazon has the tools to enforce copyright law. I can buy the products, look at them and return them, but it just strikes me as a waste of time. They will either look identical to my products, or they'll look very similar, but whichever the case is, it won't change very much except taking more time.
I've already done a counterfeit report using my trademark, and that was just as successful as the copyright report was (meaning it was not successful). As a matter of fact, Artisan Owl's stuff is all FBA and Amazon can research the products in inventory and compare immediately.
American Art Classics is actually a repeat violator, if you look in their history, I've already had these coins removed in the past, more than once, but he keeps relisting as different ASINs. I can also forward past correspondence with Frank (the owner of the company as we've had words in the past over this, especially before I had my IP protections and was asking him to remove his listings. That didn't work, which is why I got trademarked and copyrights in the first place.
I've been making reports for years, removing counterfeit products from listings, here, on Ebay, Etsy, etc. Sending in the report and my registration numbers has always been just fine. It's only all of a sudden this is an issue, and only through Amazon. I know Amazon is always changing things, trying to come up with better ways to do things, but whatever this is, going on right now, it's not a good change.
Let me ask you, I buy the products, and I say they're counterfeit, how does that change where we are now? I know they didn't buy them from me, and they're using my intellectual property as it's clearly on display from their pictures. If you're telling me that's the only way, I'll do it, but I don't see where that really changes anything. the computer clearly isn't recognizing my rights, and this is where we need a human capable of making the decisions.
Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
Happy Saturday, I'll guess you work M-F, I work back-half days. I was thinking though, this is really being made to sound more complicated than it is. No one expects anyone to be a copyright lawyer, or to have one on staff. This is also certainly far from the first report Amazon has gotten, or that even I have made. If you don't know how to help me, can we escalate this to a person or department who can? I mean no offense to you and appreciate your help, but this is honestly an open and shut case in my favor. I have all the information and have submitted it, I'm a rights holder, my IP is being infringed on, and Amazon is expected to respect property rights and delete listings of offenders.
If I have to take action and report this to enforcement agencies, Amazon will be the party guilty of not enforcing well established laws on their platform and will have to answer for it, every day this listing is up, is a day I'm losing money to a counterfeiter that's underselling me when they shouldn't even be allowed on Amazon.
Jim_Amazon
Hi, yes I do work M-F!
Within your Brand Registry account, I can see that all of the reports you've done in the past month have been under the "Copyright" category. With this being the same product, I would like for you to pick one ASIN and select "Trademark infringement" on this to report it that way. On top of that to ensure we're covering all aspects, if you could also head over to Report Abuse, select "Product detail page violates Amazon’s policies or is misleading customers" and then click "The product listing is a duplicate of another product listing", then I think we have a pretty airtight case covering both the IP side of things and the listing violation side of things.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
Before I'm even submitting the trademark report, it's claiming:
1 of 1 selected ASIN(s) do not contain the reported trademark and will be excluded from your report
You can review the excluded ASIN(s) in the ASIN summary. If you choose to include any of the excluded ASIN(s) in your report, please provide more information about where you identified the trademark. If you agree that all ASIN(s) should be excluded, click ‘Back’ below the ASIN summary to return to the search results. Trademark infringement requires the unauthorized use of a registered trademark on the product, packaging, or the product detail page. Learn more about our policy.
This is also why I'm in favor of the copyright report, because it clearly shows my copyrighted work on product pages for all products listed. I did submit at least 1 trademark report with all the other reports, but it gave a message like this for the products, so it possibly invalidated each item in the report, basically deleting it in the process. I'm going to try the second part of what you asked me to do, but the trademark report is a no-go before even submitting it.
Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
I can only report the Artisan Owl items, not the American Art Classics (of which I saw two listings today I hadn't seen or reported (so now a total of three listings)). I used to sell all these coins that AAC is selling (one is bundled with their money). Each is displaying my copyrighted prayer and that's the only way I can report them. Today I saw two products they have listed I wasn't aware of.
Can you look at their history and see they've already had each of these coins already removed? Relisting under new ASINs is also a violation of Amazon's policies, regardless of any reports I may be making.
I do need a way to report copyright infringement as it's the most relevant to all of my products and binds all of them. I have different copyrights for different products, such as the Breast Cancer and Education coins. I'm also making a new product I'll be selling which I'll be copyrighting as well. Copyright reports HAVE worked in the past, and there should be a way to enforce them on the platform. I'm not trying to be difficult, but especially with the military products I'm not selling anymore, anyone trying to sell them I can at least report in that way.
Seller_tZJo8PvgHyd8X
Call a trademark and copyright lawyer instead.
