On the Amazon platform, it is the seller's responsibility to ensure that the products sold are legal and authorized by the property owner. The property rights here refer to intellectual property rights. If the seller does not understand intellectual property rights well, it is easy to cause infringement and even face the risk of having the store closed. Today, I will give you some make-up lessons.
1. Trademark Infringement
A trademark is the symbol of a brand. Its independent distinctiveness is the most intuitive way for consumers to identify and distinguish the source of products or services. A good brand can easily win the trust of consumers. Therefore, many sellers will take shortcuts and choose to copy branded listings, or plagiarize other people's brands in the titles, descriptions, keywords, etc. of their own listings to increase their own store sales or share other buyers' traffic. Once Amazon finds out about this, or the brand sues, or the buyer complains about counterfeit products, the store will be immediately closed.
2. Patent Infringement
A trademark protects a brand name or design, while a patent protects the product itself. Compared with trademarks, the scope of protection is smaller, but the protection is very strong. Patent right is a proprietary right, which is absolutely exclusive. In addition, by searching for the name of a trademark in the trademark offices of various countries, one can find out whether the brand is registered, thereby subjectively avoiding the risk of infringement. However, patent protection is extremely strong, and confidentiality is also extremely strong. Patents that are under application cannot be searched. Even patents that have been authorized and announced are difficult to retrieve without a patent number. Therefore, patent infringement is extremely difficult to prevent and the risks are very high. Many sellers even have their stores closed without knowing the truth and die in obscure circumstances.
3. Copyright Infringement
Copyright, also known as author's right, refers to the general term for the personal and property rights enjoyed by authors and other right holders over literary, artistic and scientific works. Some time ago, products printed with anime and cartoon characters were extremely popular, mainly fashion products such as clothing, shoes, hats, luggage and leather goods. But at the same time, a large number of stores were closed down because anime and cartoon characters are protected by copyright, and Amazon also strictly investigates and punishes this issue. Another type is copying of product display pictures. If a seller has the original picture of the product and the listing picture is put on the shelves before other sellers, it is also an infringement for other sellers to steal his picture.
How to prevent infringement?
For private label products
1. When posting product information, pay special attention to the words used and ensure that everything is original.
2. Check brand keywords or phrases in trademark databases, such as Justia Trademarks.
3. Before listing your own brand product, make sure it is unique, even if it has passed patent review.
If you purchase from a third party
1. If possible, find out the intellectual property owner and sales agent for each product.
2. Ensure that all published product information, including pictures, are approved by the intellectual property owner.
3. Record the item list and invoice for each product and check them before listing.
4. Make sure the document you get is an invoice, not an order confirmation, pro forma invoice, commercial invoice, etc.
5. Investigate suppliers and their competitors, and avoid purchasing from wholesalers who cannot provide relevant documents.
This is the end of the article on Amazon intellectual property infringement. If you want to get more information about Amazon intellectual property infringement, please pay attention. We will continue to answer your questions~
