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!
Jim_Amazon
@Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
We're actually hosting an event right now with the Report a Violation team that can be found HERE.
I would like for you to bring up this scenario there so that the responsible team can give their thoughts on it!
Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
Thanks, Jim! I made a post, we'll see how it goes, I appreciate the information.
Jim_Amazon
As the event is only for today, if there are still follow ups that remain once it's closed, I'll still be here to continue working on this.
Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
I'm sure you saw my post on the forum, no official reply, should I still expect a response there?
Jim_Amazon
@Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
I did see it! Your particular case is taking a bit longer than normal to investigate but the team is actively working on it and I'm also tracking it personally.
I'll give them a nudge on this but right now I just need you to sit tight as they work on it!
Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
Okay, that's all I can do. The most important thing to me is the copyright protection though, because it's the most obvious IP theft as it is on every counterfeit product, whether I'm still selling it or not. Plagiarizing someone else's text should be an obvious, huge infraction, and I'll be reporting those other American Art Classics coins as well. As I mentioned though, those were already removed by Amazon in a previous report, and relisting should be a huge account violation!
I would ask if you can remove any previous reports that were listed as "false", as they were not, and should not be held against my seller account. No reports I made were in err, or false. If they can't be removed, at least they should not be held against me if you know what I mean. When I asked for help, the only answer I got was to make more reports.
Thank you for bearing with me, this is just a frustrating situation for me. I already had a tough year, the one when I didn't yet have my trademark and copyrights, and it took almost a year to get them. This reminds me of that time.
Jim_Amazon
@Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
No need to apologize at all. This is what we're here for!
I don't know why these instances were rejected or have any background info, but it is currently with our experts and that owning team to give it a second look.
Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
Let me ask you though, why is this suddenly so difficult for Amazon? Amazon has been enforcing trademarks and copyrights for years, why is this a problem now?
Jim_Amazon
@Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
It's not so much that this is a problem, but it's more so an instance where I'm looking for more information as to why this one was rejected. In instances like this, I want to ensure everything is operating properly.
From what I can see from the team, they are asking if there's a second copyright number as the one you submitted on your report was for only the name of the prayer. Just trying to ensure the team as all relevant information for this case.
Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
The original copyright numbers were TX 8-822-406 for the Hero's Valor Military Prayer, and TX 8-803-520 for the Hero's Valor Civil Service Prayer, but they changed the formatting of the numbers and they put both versions of the prayer under the TX0008803520 registration number. Both prayers are identical, except for one word. One says "serve my country", the other says "serve my community. None off my other prayers merged under a same number as they were each much more different from each other. The other prayers are the Hero's Valor Breast Cancer Prayer TX 0008822407 (formerly TX 8-822-407, and the Hero's Valor Teacher's Prayer TX 0008822554 (formerly TX 8-822-554).
My registration papers state the title of the work, my name and the work protected as Author Created: Text, that being the prayer. When you write a book, and copyright it, they will name the title and author of the book, but they're not going to reprint the book on your documents.
Every time and everywhere I have sought to protect my work, my copyright has been recognized, including with Amazon, until now, so to me, this is a new problem
Let me elaborate of what the very top of the document states::
"This Certificate issued under the seal of the Copyright Office in accordance with title 17, United States Code, attests that the registration has been made for the work identified below. The information on this certificate has been made a part of the Copyright Office records."
Please note the bold and underlined part, where is says "for the work identified below". The title is the identifier, the text the author created is the work, in this case, my prayer. You do not have two copyrights, one for a title, and one for the work...
If you give me an email address, or way to attach my documents, I'll gladly send you copies for your own examination. At no time is the past, has Amazon ever come back saying "This is just for the title", nor has anyone else. Which however, the products do also have the title printed on their products, in which case they are still in violation of my copyrights, even by your own determination, which I fully disagree with and dispute, so am further puzzled why no action has been taken.
Seller_j1jF9nxfXmdeu
I feel like I need to further point out the fact... The original titles to the prayers were all different, though the words "Hero's Valor Prayer" is contained in all four titles, and I own all four original documents with those titles...
Just to prove it's the content and not the titles that are the protected work, this is why the United States Copyright Office took it upon themselves to merge the Hero's Valor Military Prayer and the Hero's Valor Civil Service Prayer into a single listing titled "Hero's Valor Prayer", without any input from me (I didn't even know it happened until after the fact), because it's the content that is the same (despite the single word difference), any reproduction of this work is legally considered plagiarism or theft of my intellectual property, and punishable under Copyright Law.
If it were only the titles that were protected, they would have either left all four as they were or merged all four. As a matter of fact, I don't think you can only copyright a title alone, it is all a unit (the title and the work, all works must be named, and that name is the identifier for the work). Otherwise, people would be copyrighting good sounding titles left and right and selling to the highest bidder, much as they currently do with website URLs. It's very hard to find a good URL because of this practice. When creating a new brand, I have to first see what URLs aren't taken so I can buy it for my brand.
Seller_tZJo8PvgHyd8X
Call a trademark and copyright lawyer instead.
