In its 2023 Brand Protection Report, Amazon reveals its efforts to eliminate counterfeit products. Bolstered by more than $1.2 billion in investment and 15,000 personnel, from machine learning scientists to specialized investigators, the company secures its platform from counterfeiting, fraud, and abuses. Among its achievements, Amazon reports that over 700,000 bad actors have been deterred from making seller accounts. In addition, Amazon claims to have decreased valid infringement notices by more than 30% since 2020 with the help of advanced AI. Over 7 million counterfeit products were seized and disposed of, and the company revealed increased consumer awareness of the dangers of counterfeit products. Find out more about the platform’s initiatives in the full report.

What is the Amazon Brand Registry?

Amazon’s Brand Registry program is a system where brand owners can submit their intellectual property to mitigate various infringement issues and make Amazon represent your brand precisely. That enables more customer trust and allows several tools and services to help combat infringement and counterfeit activities. Brand owners should understand and comply with the trademark registration process to enroll and reap the benefits.

Trademarks and the Amazon Brand Registry

Trademarks are accepted under the certificate issued by government trademark offices. Accepted types of trademarks include but are not limited to, standard character marks, stylized/design marks, and, in some jurisdictions, sound marks. They must be registered in one of the countries supported by Amazon’s Brand Registry. Since the company is oriented toward providing robust solutions, this list is constantly updated to reflect new and relevant variations of the supported countries.

Let’s briefly review the process of obtaining a trademark, which begins with an application submitted to a trademark office, which in the US is the USPTO. The application is examined to confirm it meets all legal requirements and to determine if there is any conflict with existing trademarks. Assuming there is no office action from the USPTO, the mark proceeds to the publication and opposition stage, making your trademark available to the public to allow third parties to oppose it. However, if there is no such opposition, the office will register the trademark and issue you a certificate of registration.

Once a trademark certificate issuance certifies the owner’s right to the brand, the brand is eligible for Amazon Brand Registry enrollment. Post-enrollment, the owner is granted access to a variety of tools and services designed to control the brand’s integrity on Amazon. These include the search and report tools to effectively find and report counterfeit items or listings that infringe Amazon’s policies. Amazon’s proactive enforcement strategies offer an extra layer of protection without the cost of litigation.

For faster product authentication and listing verification, Amazon has launched adjacent programs, such as Transparency or Project Zero. These tools can significantly enhance the promoted brand’s quality representation on Amazon. However, the efficacy of the Amazon Brand Registry for brands solely depends on how actively the owner engages with Amazon reports possible infringements, and keeps up with new policies. Amazon’s policies continuously evolve to create better strategies to combat new infringement challenges; however, this also means that brand owners have to stay abreast of these changes.

Eight Steps to Sign up for the Amazon Brand Registry:

Step 1: Check If You Are Eligible

Before starting the registration process, ensure your brand meets Amazon’s eligibility requirements. The main criteria are having a live registered trademark for a brand in one’s country. It must be a text-based mark, an image-based mark, or, in some exceptional cases, a 3D mark.

Step 2: Create an Amazon Seller or Vendor Account

If you do not have an existing Amazon Seller or Vendor account, you must create one, as access to Brand Registry is obtained through Amazon’s Seller Central or Vendor Central.

Step 3: Sign In to Amazon Brand Registry & Enroll in a Brand

After creating an Amazon Seller or Vendor account, log in to the Amazon Brand Registry and click on the “enroll a new brand” option. The platform will ask for detailed information about a brand – the brand name with the live registered trademark, the registry number of the trademark, and the name of the registry office. You must also accurately describe your product categories and the countries under which they are manufactured and distributed.

Step 5: Submit the Trademark Registration Information

Upload a picture of a brand’s logo and a list of product categories from Amazon’s catalog in which a brand should be registered. Moreover, in some countries, you will need to provide your registration number and a copy of the registration certificate.

Step 6: Verify Brand Ownership

Amazon may demand additional documentation or information to verify brand ownership more clearly. For example, a website URL in the URL field or an official email should be introduced or sent from the registered trademark association. Sometimes Amazon sends a code via email to the registered trademark owner’s email, or if you have used an attorney, your lawyer will receive this email.

Step 7: List products under your brand

Sellers can start listing their products under their brand name after the brand is activated through the Amazon Brand Registry. Make sure to provide product details, from descriptions to images and SKUs. It is essential to have your product listing as straightforward as possible for the brand and take advantage of the brand protection prospects.

Step 8: Use Amazon’s Brand Registry protection tools

Once registered, the Amazon Brand Registry might use fulfillment or related tools or services. These authorities include the brand dashboard, search tools, and proactive brand bitmap to keep track of brands on Amazon. In addition, Amazon has introduced some other adjacent services to have product authentication or listing verification quicker. These services include Transparency, Project Zero, and supply chain healing. These services might help promote the quality of a brand promoted on Amazon. The efficiency of the Amazon Brand Registry for brands depends on how persistent the owner is. It includes waiting for reports and roundups of infringements and other policy changes. Policies constantly change to fight new infringements or infringement challenges. Brand owners need to be aware of it.

When doesn’t the Amazon Brand Registry Help Brand Owners?

You cannot sign up for the brand registry if you don’t have a registered trademark. The most obvious solution is to ensure your brand is well protected through trademark registration in every country where your products are sold. It is important to note that the brand registry is a national system, and you can only participate on the Amazon site in the country where trademark registration is registered.

Suppose your products are being infringed on non-amazon websites. In that case, typically, your only solution is to start with a cease & desist letter and, ultimately, if that is unsuccessful, possibly a lawsuit. Depending on the particular issue, several solutions exist, including an ICANN dispute and action before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in cases where someone has hijacked your brand at the USPTO. The best advice there, as always, is to talk to a professional trademark lawyer.

[View source.]