A Breakdown of Amazon Brand Protection | What You Should Look Out For, How to Take a Proactive Approach

Selling on Amazon is undeniably a struggle for many! Even those who’ve attained some measure of success on the platform have to consistently grind to maintain their momentum. Similar to content creators who have to upload as much as possible, Amazon sellers have to invest an enormous amount of resources and energy to build a brand that attracts customers and makes sales on the regular. Getting someone to check out your product pages is one thing – converting that traffic to real sales time and again is another. 

For these reasons, successful brand owners must consider Amazon brand protection! You sacrificed and labored to build your brand. We know how hard that truly is. Be proud. But also, be smart. Anyone who has been selling on Amazon knows not everyone involved in the marketplace is rooting for you. You have competing brands, sneaky counterfeiters, and folks who are looking to rip you off. Brand protection on Amazon is huge. You’ll want to do whatever you can to ensure the integrity of your brand is intact, along with your reputation, and prevent anyone from taking sales away from you. 

Is Brand Protection on Amazon an Option? It’s More Like a Necessity!

Maybe you’re conceptualizing Amazon brand protection as something you may do or may not do. That’s ok, but if you’re keen on guarding against some of the most brutal competition in the capitalist world, you should view brand protection on Amazon as essential! Your profits and long-term brand success depends on that protection. 

Let’s talk about what Amazon brand protection is… 

Amazon offers an array of advanced programs that help online sellers both build and protect their brand: 

• Brand Registry 
  • Amazon Brand Registry is a tool that addresses intellectual property (IP) protection, listing management, and brand growth. 
• IP Accelerator
  • Amazon IP Accelerator is used to register intellectual property, which gives IP owners protection over their valuable assets. 
• Transparency
  • Amazon Transparency gives brands and their customers protection through product authentication.
• Amazon Project Zero
  • Project Zero relies on “brand insights” and Amazon’s own technology to eliminate counterfeit products from the platform. 
• Amazon Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU)
  • CCU is a network of law enforcement, customers, and brands that work collectively to prevent counterfeiting and protect brand owners by holding infringers accountable. 

Amazon sellers need to prioritize protecting their intellectual property (IP) and brand integrity. A large chunk of this issue is due to infringement and unauthorized sales of a given brand on Amazon. As the saying goes, the customer is always right. Brands should always aim to give the customer what they want, so that they return to buy more products. To do that, you have to establish trust with your consumer base – this comes from reliably giving customers a positive buying experience and having authentic products. 

Watch Out for Counterfeiters, Infringement, and Unauthorized Sellers…

Why is brand protection such a hot issue on Amazon? Lots of reasons. It’s easy to list products on Amazon, for example. That’s good, but it’s also a little tricky. A potential infringer can lift your brand’s images and product descriptions and then use those assets to push their own unauthorized products. By doing this, counterfeiters can rely on the legitimate reputation of an authorized seller to boost their own sales. If you’ve got a product that’s selling incredibly well because it’s fulfilling a niche in the market, unauthorized sellers can also exploit that! Once that market corner is saturated, your sales will take a nasty dip. The fact that Amazon is a global company with a consumer base around the world should also be a concern regarding brand protection. Infringers can move counterfeit goods internationally and therefore make it very difficult for brands to take action against that infringement. 

Now, let’s zoom in on some of the specific areas brands should protect themselves from on Amazon: 

• Counterfeiting 
• Copying of Content 
• Fake Reviews 
• Listing Hijacking 
• Loss of Organic Ranking 
• Advertising Risks 
• Fake Reviews

To Register a Trademark or Not to Register a Trademark…

What’s one of the most effective methods for achieving brand protection on Amazon? Register a trademark! With a trademark registration, your mark will be listed on the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database. Registration means you’ll have legal proof that you’re the owner of the trademark! A cool thing, this gives mark owners the ability to file for trademark protection internationally. Also – and crucially – it provides owners with the power to file lawsuits in a federal court. You’ll want that to protect yourself against infringement! When registering your trademark, you’ll greatly benefit from using an intellectual property attorney or Trademark Lawyer. 

Another awesome benefit of trademark registration is that it makes brands eligible for Amazon’s Brand Registry. The registry allows you to establish that your goods are definitively associated with your brand. It further gives you the ability to easily spot infringement, stop unauthorized sellers from hijacking listings, and maintain more comprehensive control over your pages. 

As we mentioned earlier, there’s also the Amazon Transparency Program. It is available in the United States, England, Germany, Canada, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, and India. With the transparency program, Amazon identifies infringing goods, blacklists those products, and stops them from getting delivered to the customer. The program works by using 2D barcodes in a T-shape that are fixed to product packaging. Each code is unique. The labeling and code system eliminates the sale of counterfeit goods! 

Our incredible team of intellectual property attorneys at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC knows how to protect Amazon sellers and their brands. Are you interested in registering a trademark to boost your Amazon brand protection? Or, are you experiencing any kind of difficulty with an infringement issue or counterfeiters? Contact our office today for a free consultation!

Up next we will be discussing Issues Starting an Amazon Seller Account.