Amazon Intellectual Property Violations
Amazon Sellers need to know about intellectual property laws, especially if their Amazon account was suspended because of an IP complaint.
Usually, an Amazon Seller will be suspended for selling products that violate another brand’s trademark or copyright claim, Amazon will suspend your account if you are infringing upon another brand. Refrain from using another brand’s products unless you have permission to sell those products.
The complaints that cause Amazon accounts/listings to be suspended are often referred to as rights owner complaints. Sellers accused of violating intellectual property rights should call an intellectual property lawyer at our firm for a consultation at 1-877-9-SELLER about how we can help with your Amazon infringement appeal and with Amazon IP protection.
Intellectual property violations can happen when a seller infringes on another brand’s intellectual property, such as by selling copyrighted or trademarked products. These intellectual property violations are taken seriously by Amazon, our IP lawyers will help you correct the issues with your amazon account.
If you see another brand using any of your intellectual property, contact an IP lawyer. There are multiple solutions, you shouldn’t allow another brand or individual to profit from something you own.
An IP lawyer can handle your patents, trademarks, copyrights, and more. Protect your intellectual property on Amazon, an IP lawyer can help you address the issues you are having such as other brands infringing on your intellectual property.
Received a complaint on Amazon?
When it comes to intellectual property right complaints, the very first thing that you have to do, whether your account is down or not, is to have an intellectual property lawyer who knows both Amazon and intellectual property law do an evaluation to see whether you are or are not violating anybody’s intellectual property rights. We do that step within hours of being retained.
The next step is contacting the complainants, reaching out to whomever made that complaint against you, and negotiate for a retraction. If you violated their rights, you’re negotiating differently than if you did not violate their rights. If that person or company made a false counterfeit complaint, you have a ton of leverage to negotiate that retraction.
The third step, whether you receive that retraction or not, is getting information over to Amazon in a concise, persuasive manner to show either one, you didn’t violate anything, number two, you obtained a retraction, or three, they are absolutely ignoring you and abusing Amazon’s intellectual property complaint system.
The Legal Process: If a trademark infringer is detected, what can be done?
The answer depends on the platform the seller is on, and in what specific ways the trademark was infringed upon.
After determining the nature of the infringement, the seller, through their intellectual property lawyer, will generally send a cease and desist letter.
This letter requests that the infringer refrain from further violating intellectual property rights. Generally, it notifies the infringer that if the offending products are not removed from the view of consumers, further legal action may follow.
If an Amazon merchant has fallen victim to infringement at the hands of another Amazon merchant, the seller’s attorney may file a take down request with Amazon. When Amazon complies with the take down request, infringers will often resume selling the infringing product under a different account.
If financially feasible, sellers who suffer infringement can seek redress in court.
Intellectual Property Lawyer Questions: What is copyrightable, and what is not?
Here’s a short list of some material that is NOT copyrightable:
- Ideas, methods, or systems.
If you’re referring to just an idea or a method, it is not copyrightable. A classic example is an invention. The reason why an invention is not copyrightable is because another form of intellectual property protects inventions and that is called patents. - Names, titles, and short phrases.
Obvious reasons anyone uses a name or a short phrase, for example, there’s no copyright protection. I can’t copyright my name, my name is David. I can’t copyright someone else’s name or a short phrase like, Been there, done that.” - Fonts and lettering.
So if you create a new font, generally, not copyrightable material. Blank forms, any sort of form, not copyrightable. - Familiar signs and designs.
So, a shape, for example, a circle, square, or any sort of sign that you see all the time, like a stop sign, is not copyrightable material.
Call us if you have questions about intellectual property law: 1-877-9-SELLER.