In 2016, AliExpress began to fully transform from cross-border C2C to cross-border B2C, and corporate identity and brand qualifications became the entry credentials. Amazon has already emphasized the importance of trademark registration and brand certification. For new and old sellers, the first thing that comes to mind when talking about Amazon’s double-edged sword rule is undoubtedly the phenomenon of copycat sales. Amazon's original intention in establishing the follow-selling rules was to provide a platform for merchants to compete, encourage different agents of the same brand to compete on price, and pass on benefits to consumers, thereby increasing the attractiveness of the Amazon platform and enhancing industry competitiveness. However, with the subsequent development, the behavior of copy-selling caused vicious competition within the industry and seriously damaged the rights and interests of the initial merchants.
Why does Amazon need a trademark?
1. Registering your own trademark brand can effectively prevent copycat sales, protect your own listings, increase the credibility of your listings, and enable your own listings to be searched more accurately. In this way, the company can maintain its own profit margin, effectively stop infringement by companies in the same category, and prevent others from tampering with the content of the listing. While protecting its own commercial profits, it also protects the company's intangible assets.
2. Register your own trademark. Now you can register your brand on Amazon only if you have a registration certificate. After the brand is successfully registered, if there are sellers who continue to maliciously follow the sales, affect your sales reputation, and steal the fruits of your labor, you can file a complaint to the backend. After filing, you can get Amazon's exclusive GCID code. With GCID, you can protect your self-built listings. At the same time, it can completely replace UPC, avoiding a series of problems such as high UPC duplication and purchase costs. Amazon also uses GCID to check whether a product can be copied.
3. Currently, most countries implement the first-to-file principle and protect trademarks that are applied for and registered first. If a company does not consider issues such as trademark registration and inquiry before expanding into overseas markets, it may not even know that it has infringed on the trademark rights of others in that country (once someone else has registered first, there is a high risk of passive infringement and facing cross-border litigation and huge compensation). Only by doing a good job of trademark registration can a company enter the market with confidence, lay the foundation for creating a famous brand, and ensure its own brand competitiveness in the international market.
4. Since China entered the WTO, trade between my country and other countries has become more and more frequent, and many issues involving trademarks, patents, intellectual property protection, etc. have also emerged. Over the years, the Chinese government has guided and encouraged enterprises to "go global". Its strategy is mainly to encourage enterprises to use trademarks to go global, establish international independent brands, achieve diversification, and truly go global. To this end, the country has introduced a number of relevant subsidy policies, such as a 5,000-7,500 yuan subsidy for Shenzhen companies applying for US trademarks and a 10,000-15,000 yuan subsidy for EU trademarks, to help companies grow. After analyzing this, the advantages of Amazon merchants registering brand trademarks are self-evident.
In short, when opening a store on Amazon, registering a trademark has more advantages than disadvantages, and for the survival of the store, every Amazon seller will register a trademark. The above is the content about Amazon trademark registration in this issue. If you want to get more knowledge about Amazon trademark registration, please continue to pay attention!
