Trademarks and the Amazon Brand Registry Program

The term “marketplace” has evolved drastically, from open air markets, to shopping malls and department stores, and we now find ourselves in the era of online marketplaces. Amazon.com is currently the largest online marketplace, where millions of sellers and buyers connect from around the world. Like physical markets and shopping malls, online marketplaces provide opportunity for intellectual property infringement through sale of counterfeit products. Amazon has established the Amazon Brand Registry program to protect sellers’ branding.

What is the Amazon Brand Registry?

The Amazon Brand Registry program provides sellers control over who can use their branding, including their business name and logos. The program provides sellers with a system to report unauthorized use of their branding. Sellers who register their trademarks with Amazon have opportunity to identify and report problematic listings that utilize their branding without permission.

Amazon also actively identifies unauthorized use of a seller’s trademarks. The platform looks for products listed by sellers that use another enrolled seller’s trademark. The goal is to identify when a seller lists products that do not belong to that seller’s brand. Amazon, for example, looks for images that contain a seller’s logo but show another seller’s products, or identifies when a seller is shipping from countries where that seller does not manufacture or distribute products using an enrolled trademark.

Requirements

In the United States, a potential seller must hold a trademark registration on the principal registration to enroll in the Amazon Brand Registry program. A seller may apply using a pending trademark application through the Amazon IP Accelerator. To qualify for either, the seller’s trademark must be a text-based or image-based trademark. Text-based trademarks include words, letters, or numbers. Image-based trademarks include symbols, drawings, or images that may contain words, letters, or numbers in a stylized way.

After a seller has submitted its application, Amazon will verify the seller’s ownership of a trademark, by issuing a verification to an authorized party on the trademark registration, often to the attorney of record. Then the seller sends that verification code to Amazon to complete the enrollment process. Once Amazon has verified the seller’s information, the seller gains access to the full suite of Amazon Brand Registry’s benefits and features that help the seller protect its brand.

considerations

Selling on Amazon is an excellent way to expand a seller’s business. Working with a trademark lawyer takes the guesswork out of acquiring a trademark registration and successfully enrolling in the Amazon Brand Registry. At the Antares Law Firm, we frequently help sellers enroll in the Amazon Brand Registry. Contact the Antares Law Firm today.

—Laila Ghauri, Esq., Trademark Lawyer, Antares Law Firm