Infringement on Amazon

Protect Your Amazon Business: Handling Infringement Notices and Avoiding Suspected IP Issues

Selling on Amazon? Make sure you’re aware of intellectual property infringement rules!

You may have heard of a recent court case in the UK regarding trademarks. 

The popular UK supermarket chain Tesco was recently forced to withdraw its ‘Clubcard Prices’ logo design, after the rival supermarket chain Lidl successfully argued that the design was too similar to its own brand logo. 

Amazon also operates an infringement detection and complain system under the Amazon Brand Registry.

Have you recently received a notification from Amazon that some of your products have been delisted due to suspected infringement of intellectual property (IP)? 

If so, you’ll want to read ahead to make sure you know what to do.

What should I do if I receive a notice?

You should examine the notice carefully and check your account status page for more information.

Each of your product listings will be associated with an Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN). 

The status page will display which ASINs have been flagged as infringing on someone else’s intellectual property.  

There are two possible reasons for infringement:

• The product itself (including packaging)
• The product listing (e.g. title, pictures or description)

You’ll need to determine which aspects of your product(s)/product listing(s) are infringing. 

For example, if the infringement is in relation to the product picture, it may be because you have sourced the image online, rather than providing your own image.  It’s important that you ensure you have permission to use another person’s content!

If I want to appeal, what should I do?

This depends on whether the suspected infringement is at the ASIN level, or at the account level. 

An ASIN-level infringement means that one or more product listings have been deemed as infringing. 

There are two types of ASIN infringements:

• Infringement determined by Amazons’ internal investigations
• Complaints raised by other sellers

ASIN-level appeals

For infringement notices issued as a result of Amazon’s own internal investigations, you will be given the option to acknowledge or dispute the infringement.

If you acknowledge the infringement, you can:

• Check that the ASIN and associated details are correct
• Submit corrections based on Amazon’s feedback
• Submit an appeal for review after the corrections have been made

If you don’t acknowledge the infringement, you’ll need to:

• Provide evidence that you have the right to use the trademark (if applicable)
• Provide evidence that you are not infringing on the flagged intellectual property and/or that you have the rights to use it

The process is different for complaints raised by other sellers.

If you acknowledge the infringement, you can accept the complaint and remove the infringing product listing(s).

If you don’t acknowledge the infringement, you’ll need to submit evidence showing that you are entitled to use the intellectual property which the seller has claimed.

Account-level appeals

An account-level infringement means that your Amazon seller account has been suspended. 

This is usually after receiving multiple ASIN-level infringement notices.  You will need to submit a formal appeal to Amazon to unblock your account. 

As part of the appeal, you will need to submit evidence that your product listings do not infringe on registered IP, or that you already have a licence agreement in place with the relevant IP-holders (if you are selling third-party items).

How can I avoid future infringement issues?

We’ve compiled a quick checklist which you can use to double-check your product listings:

• Check for any IP-related issues before uploading product listings
• Make sure you are not re-using content (e.g. images) from other sources unless you have secured the rights to do so
• Check on the relevant public databases (e.g. UK/EU IPO, USPTO) for where you are selling
• Review your product listings regularly
• Do not use random punctuation in your product listings (both titles and product listings) – some of these may already be trademarked
• Avoid listing products with similar brand designs

It’s also important to note that if you’ve previously acknowledged an IP infringement, you need to make sure that the same infringement is not committed again, otherwise you could face an account-level suspension!

TBA Global has experience in numerous compliance solutions including VAT, EPR, EU Responsible Person services, trademarking, UK company registration and accounting, and much more. 

Interested in finding out more? Get in touch with us at info@tbaglobal.com for a free one-to-one consultation.