Account deactivated due to IP complaint, please help with my POA
I submitted this POA yesterday and it got rejected by Amazon, I wonder if any of you could give me some advice on how to change it to make it succesful. I’ll start by saying the feedback Amazon responded to this:
"Why did this happen?
One or more of your listings may be infringing the intellectual property rights of others and the appeal you provided did not adequately address the intellectual property infringement.
We’re here to help.
If you need help better understanding what is causing this, please search for “Intellectual Property Violations” in Seller Central Help (https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/gp/help/external/201361070).
How do I reinstate my account?
Please provide one of the following:
A plan of action with the following:
– Greater detail on the root cause(s) of the infringement.
– Greater detail on the actions you have taken to resolve the complaint.
– Greater detail on the steps you have taken to prevent infringement going forward.
– Greater detail on how your account has complied with our policy.
– Greater detail on evidence or examples that demonstrate that your account has complied with our policy."
I’ll now attach my plan of action:
Dear Amazon,
We are appealing reinstatement of our account health as we have encountered issues of Intellectual Property infringement for ASIN B06XHHFPJF.
We are very determined to only run a professional business which does not breach the rights of any sellers and we would like to work with you to fix this issue.
We understand and agree that we have unintentionally violated the rights of the brand VFENG, we genuinely apologise for this. Amazon’s policies and guidelines are something we take extremely seriously, and we would not knowingly or intentionally violate them.
The root cause of the issue
We sold a product on Amazon (ASIN B06XHHFPJF) for which the brand (VFENG) holds Intellectual Property rights.
We mistakenly sold a product which was not by the correct brand that was listed on the ASIN.
The trademark infringement type was Counterfeit and the trademark asserted was: UK00003537103.
We didn’t fully check the rights of the brand before listing the product and for this we apologise.
We made the mistake of assuming that we wouldn’t be able to list a product that breached third party seller rights, which led to our intellectual property complaint.
The reason this mistake was made is because we had a fault in our listing process, and we failed to realise that the product we were selling was not the same brand despite it looking identical. This gap in our listing process is something we take full accountability for, and we now recognise the mistake we made.
The actions you have taken to resolve the notices of infringement or violation of Amazon’s policies.
This mistake has allowed us to recognise that we had a flaw in our listing process, and everything should be checked several times before assuming we can sell on amazon. It’s important to note that we are 100% responsible for the items we sell on Amazon.
After receiving the notification of infringement, we immediately contacted the brand owner to let them know we had deleted and removed all listings and we asked them if there was anything else we could do to show them our sincerest apologies. We offered to send them any remaining stock for them to dispose of, but we have not yet had a response.
We have already closed and deleted the listing in all marketplaces for this brand.
We have also taken proactive corrective action and gone through our entire account to ensure that ALL brands owned by VFENG have been removed from our inventory.
We are very keen to not breach any Intellectual Property rights of any third-party sellers.
We have also taken proactive corrective action to make sure that there are no other infringing ASINS present on our account.
To make sure that this never happens again we will only ever buy directly from the brand or authorised distributor and make sure that we have the means to prove the authenticity of the goods in case questions arise.
I have been reviewing The Amazon Intellectual Property Policy and the intellectual property rights of owners and I have absorbed this information to ensure no further infringements arise:
-Trademarks are used to indicate the goods of services so this should never be ignored as it could confuse the customer about the source of goods and services.
-Trademarks protect the sellers of goods and services from the misuse of trademarks by unauthorized third parties. These trademarks are recognised for example, as brand names on the product detail page and should be studied carefully to make sure you have authority to sell that exact brand.
As a seller I now realise the instance in which I may use a trademark:
-When selling authentic goods authorized by the brand owner
-If making a truthful statement that a product is compatible with trademarked product
-If using trademarked word in its ordinary dictionary descriptive meaning
Steps taken to prevent infringement or violation of Amazon’s policies.
• We have researched how we can ensure that we never again breach the rights of any third-party seller and we have established that we can check for trademarks here:
• We now ensure that all companies that we purchase stock from are either the brand themselves or authorized distributors and we check for existing trademarks and seller IP rights so we can ensure that this situation does not arise again.
• All members of staff have currently reviewed and understood Amazon’s agreements and policies and we have emphasized the importance of paying particular attention to Amazon’s Intellectual Property Policy:
https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/gp/help/external/201361070
We have also implemented training at monthly intervals to ensure all staff are kept up to date
• Where we cannot guarantee that the products are free from third party seller rights, we will not list those products.
• If we have any doubts or questions, we will contact Amazon’s Seller Performance Team to discuss and resolve before taking any action.
We thank you for considering our appeal and hope our account can be considered for reinstatement.
Kind regards,
Daisy
Account deactivated due to IP complaint, please help with my POA
I submitted this POA yesterday and it got rejected by Amazon, I wonder if any of you could give me some advice on how to change it to make it succesful. I’ll start by saying the feedback Amazon responded to this:
"Why did this happen?
One or more of your listings may be infringing the intellectual property rights of others and the appeal you provided did not adequately address the intellectual property infringement.
We’re here to help.
If you need help better understanding what is causing this, please search for “Intellectual Property Violations” in Seller Central Help (https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/gp/help/external/201361070).
How do I reinstate my account?
Please provide one of the following:
A plan of action with the following:
– Greater detail on the root cause(s) of the infringement.
– Greater detail on the actions you have taken to resolve the complaint.
– Greater detail on the steps you have taken to prevent infringement going forward.
– Greater detail on how your account has complied with our policy.
– Greater detail on evidence or examples that demonstrate that your account has complied with our policy."
I’ll now attach my plan of action:
Dear Amazon,
We are appealing reinstatement of our account health as we have encountered issues of Intellectual Property infringement for ASIN B06XHHFPJF.
We are very determined to only run a professional business which does not breach the rights of any sellers and we would like to work with you to fix this issue.
We understand and agree that we have unintentionally violated the rights of the brand VFENG, we genuinely apologise for this. Amazon’s policies and guidelines are something we take extremely seriously, and we would not knowingly or intentionally violate them.
The root cause of the issue
We sold a product on Amazon (ASIN B06XHHFPJF) for which the brand (VFENG) holds Intellectual Property rights.
We mistakenly sold a product which was not by the correct brand that was listed on the ASIN.
The trademark infringement type was Counterfeit and the trademark asserted was: UK00003537103.
We didn’t fully check the rights of the brand before listing the product and for this we apologise.
We made the mistake of assuming that we wouldn’t be able to list a product that breached third party seller rights, which led to our intellectual property complaint.
The reason this mistake was made is because we had a fault in our listing process, and we failed to realise that the product we were selling was not the same brand despite it looking identical. This gap in our listing process is something we take full accountability for, and we now recognise the mistake we made.
The actions you have taken to resolve the notices of infringement or violation of Amazon’s policies.
This mistake has allowed us to recognise that we had a flaw in our listing process, and everything should be checked several times before assuming we can sell on amazon. It’s important to note that we are 100% responsible for the items we sell on Amazon.
After receiving the notification of infringement, we immediately contacted the brand owner to let them know we had deleted and removed all listings and we asked them if there was anything else we could do to show them our sincerest apologies. We offered to send them any remaining stock for them to dispose of, but we have not yet had a response.
We have already closed and deleted the listing in all marketplaces for this brand.
We have also taken proactive corrective action and gone through our entire account to ensure that ALL brands owned by VFENG have been removed from our inventory.
We are very keen to not breach any Intellectual Property rights of any third-party sellers.
We have also taken proactive corrective action to make sure that there are no other infringing ASINS present on our account.
To make sure that this never happens again we will only ever buy directly from the brand or authorised distributor and make sure that we have the means to prove the authenticity of the goods in case questions arise.
I have been reviewing The Amazon Intellectual Property Policy and the intellectual property rights of owners and I have absorbed this information to ensure no further infringements arise:
-Trademarks are used to indicate the goods of services so this should never be ignored as it could confuse the customer about the source of goods and services.
-Trademarks protect the sellers of goods and services from the misuse of trademarks by unauthorized third parties. These trademarks are recognised for example, as brand names on the product detail page and should be studied carefully to make sure you have authority to sell that exact brand.
As a seller I now realise the instance in which I may use a trademark:
-When selling authentic goods authorized by the brand owner
-If making a truthful statement that a product is compatible with trademarked product
-If using trademarked word in its ordinary dictionary descriptive meaning
Steps taken to prevent infringement or violation of Amazon’s policies.
• We have researched how we can ensure that we never again breach the rights of any third-party seller and we have established that we can check for trademarks here:
• We now ensure that all companies that we purchase stock from are either the brand themselves or authorized distributors and we check for existing trademarks and seller IP rights so we can ensure that this situation does not arise again.
• All members of staff have currently reviewed and understood Amazon’s agreements and policies and we have emphasized the importance of paying particular attention to Amazon’s Intellectual Property Policy:
https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/gp/help/external/201361070
We have also implemented training at monthly intervals to ensure all staff are kept up to date
• Where we cannot guarantee that the products are free from third party seller rights, we will not list those products.
• If we have any doubts or questions, we will contact Amazon’s Seller Performance Team to discuss and resolve before taking any action.
We thank you for considering our appeal and hope our account can be considered for reinstatement.
Kind regards,
Daisy
12 replies
Seller_BS5lg2keRs2QO
A general comment is that it is too long and everything before “root cause” can be deleted - as can a lot of what comes after in that section. Stay away from being over apologetic as it just adds fluff and makes it harder to keep the POA focused.
I think the way it is currently written also leads to some confusion. My assumption is you bought a generic item and listed it on a branded listing, but you then talk about offering to send the brand your stock and when you can safely use a trademark. Neither of those really have anything to do with what seems to have happened. Plus, why would you offer to send your stock to another seller when there is no issue with the stock, just the way you listed it?
I’d start over with your root cause and keep it concise - perhaps use bullets to help with that. Your root cause seems to be that you found your item on a listing which looked identical from the images. but failed to notice that the listing itself was branded and hadn’t fully read and understood Amazon’s listing policy. If you can nail that section it becomes easier to do the others.
You might benefit from taking out all of the fluff, restructuring the whole appeal and posting here again for more detailed comment.
Seller_6sxtIS0RbZ5k7
My first thoughts are:
Don’t quote the patent number as you are just solidifying the case against you!
Don’t admit that you had more of their products listed, you could just say that you have thoroughly checked your inventory to ensure there are no other infringements.
In the last bit maybe you could say that you will always search by EAN and not rely on a visual match.
People may be able to offer more advice if you explained a little more what exactly has happened, eg. is this a generic product that the other seller has put their brand onto or are they a proper brand and your supplier has ripped off their design? Does yours come with an EAN already on it?
Seller_NJkXoyo5zBkMK
My POA keeps on getting rejected and I can’t see why. Would I be able to post it in here again for any of you to have a look?
Ash_Amazon
Hello @DAG_by_Arabella,
This is Ash from Amazon, and would assist you with your questions above.
From the post above, I understand that your account has been suspended and you need help with your account reactivation.
Please try to add more details to the current POA.
You can use the following guidelines to create your plan of action:
**Be clear and concise. ** Your plan of action should be factual and direct. Focus on the facts and events that led to the issue rather than providing an introduction of your product, business or customer. Remove other questions or references to ongoing support cases from your submission. Avoid using emotive language.
Provide an explanation for all issues. Some deactivations can be the result of a combination of issues (for example, a High Order Defect Rate can arise from negative feedback and undelivered orders). You must provide a response for each root cause in your plan of action.
Include supporting evidence for all items. Make sure that you submit supporting evidence for all of the products or ASINs that are under review. You can find the list of products at the bottom of your original notification. Make sure you check the time frame requested for the documents – some require invoices from the last 365 days.
Highlight areas in your supporting documents. You can make your response more relevant by circling or highlighting the area within your documents that is most important, such as ASINs, Supplier details (for example, name and supplier website) or clauses within your Terms and Conditions.
You can share your updated plan of action on this thread, The forums community and I, are here to assist you with your concerns.
Regards,
Ash.
