1. Our recently won trademark case with Amazon.
2. Fraudulent or baseless counterfeit complaints.
3. Be wary joining a listing with outdated images.
4. Liability insurance.
Amazon Sellers’ Breaking News
Hey everybody, thank you very much for joining me once again for Amazon sellers’ breaking news. I’m in a hotel in downtown Seattle because we’re going toe to toe with Amazon today and tomorrow.
1. We’ve recently won a trademark case on Amazon.
It was an intellectual property rights case where a trademark owner claimed that our client was violating their trademark by having the trademark in the listing in the verbiage. It didn’t appear any place in the detail page. The trademark owner refused to withdraw the complaint but we were ultimately successful in this case.
2. Fraudulent or baseless counterfeit complaints.
You have a right not to be accused of committing a crime. So if a brand makes a counterfeit complaint against you and you are selling 100% genuine products, it doesn’t matter if you’re authorized or unauthorized, it doesn’t matter if that brand has exclusive distribution agreements, they have absolutely no right to accuse you of selling counterfeit products.
If it’s fake and they do that, you can sue them, and you might be entitled to a significant award if you lost money. You could sue what’s called defamation per se, and you could also sue that brand for interfering with your contract with Amazon to sell.
So if you’re the victim of a baseless counterfeit complaint, let us know about it. We are here to help you. 1-877-9-SELLER.
Also, in terms of the intellectual property rights suspension that you may suffer, if you are accused of selling counterfeit products, the same arguments have been successful getting your listing / account back.
3. We need sellers all over the world to be careful joining a listing that may have outdated photographs/images, even if you did not create the listing.
If you’re jumping on a listing to sell products and that listing is outdated, think twice about getting on that. You may want to alter the listing if you have that capability. We are starting to see more suspensions of sellers, both accounts and listing suspensions, for jumping on detail pages where the detail page has become out of date because the packaging has changed, or the description is just no longer applicable.
So Amazon sellers around the world: Be SUPER careful when you’re getting on someone’s listing. Make sure the listing matches exactly what you’re going to deliver to that consumer.
4. Liability insurance.
One of the questions during cross examination yesterday was, “Did you maintain liability insurance?” Were you aware that your contract with Amazon requires you to maintain liability insurance?
It is becoming more and more apparent that Amazon is going to selectively use that requirement and they may start enforcing across the board as a sweep of third party sellers.
So retail arbitrage, online arbitrage, traditional wholesale retail sellers, whatever you’re doing, get liability coverage.
If anybody gets hurt using your product or they get hurt using somebody else’s unit that is attributed to you (if under the commingled system), insurance will cover those injuries.
When you purchase liability insurance, you are getting indemnity, which pays for somebody’s injuries whether they’re real or not. When you have insurance and you get sued or you have insurance and someone makes a claim against you, you just pass that claim off to the insurance company and they assign lawyers to you. That will save you a boatload of money and a boatload of aggravation.
In my opinion, the fact that insurance provides you with defense lawyers that they pay directly, is the most important aspect of having liability insurance.
All right, everybody. Have a great day selling. Make lots of money and just keep an eye on your products.
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