Must I own a trademark to sell on Amazon?

A trademark registration is not essential if you trade on Amazon, but it is highly recommended. Amazon rewards traders who have a registered trademark.

As an online trading platform that “strives to be the Earth’s most customer-centric company” offering “the widest possible selection of authentic goods,”* it’s important to Amazon to ensure that it offers only genuine products.

From time to time, the company has encountered problems with traders selling counterfeit goods, which has brought negative publicity and even legal action.

In a court case in October 2019, the global tech giant, Apple, produced evidence that fake Apple goods were advertised as genuine products for sale on the Amazon platform.**

Forbes, Buzzfeed and The Wallstreet Journal all published media reports which spotlighted questionable traders selling unsafe, hazardous and even forbidden goods on the Amazon marketplace.

An appeals court ruling in California in August 2020, stated that Amazon can be held liable for faulty or dangerous goods sold on its online platform.***

Unsurprisingly, to protect their integrity, Amazon has taken further measures to make certain that only credible traders offering authentic goods use their website to offer their products for sale.

How does this affect a business owner selling on Amazon?

Applying for a registered trademark is probably the most important step you can take to protect your brand.

A registered trademark not only gives you the exclusive right to use your brand, but it also helps you defend your brand in the event that you become a victim of counterfeiting.

If you have a trademark registration, you can join the Amazon Brand Registry programme and enjoy the services they offer to help you protect your business. 

To be eligible for the Amazon Brand Registry, you must have  “a registered and active text (word mark) or image-based trademark (design mark)”  - which in plain language means you must have a registered trademark for either your brand name or your logo and it must be used on your products, packaging or labelling.

Protect your Brand via Amazon Brand Registry

The Amazon Brand Registry programme was first started in 2017. Amazon has recently stepped up their offering to defend its marketplace against phony and dodgy goods.

The company initiated a triple-pronged protection strategy to build trust and to actively purge the platform of counterfeits:

Project Zero uses product serialization, driven by artificial intelligence to scan the products in their stores, confirm the authenticity of each product and eradicate the counterfeits. It also provides registered brand owners with a self-service tool that they can use to remove fakes. 

Transparency is a product serialization service that is used to verify each item before shipping. In 2019, Amazon rolled this service out to 7 more countries, besides the US.

IP Accelerator is a service that offers brand owners access to a network of reliable IP law firms to help them protect their intellectual property rights. Brands that utilise these trusted lawyers when they apply for a trademark can escalate their access to the Amazon Brand Registry long before their trademark is registered as it can take many months before the government trademark office completes the registration process.

What does the Amazon Brand Registry offer you as a trader?

1. As a member you get increased control over you brand’s product listings on the Amazon platform

2. You can use their search tools and report any suspicious products which infringe your trademark.

3. You are eligible for further brand protection via Amazon’s Project Zero and can use this service to get products that infringe your trademark removed. 

You can only access the next level of protection offered by Amazon’s Project Zero (the product serialization, automated protections and self-service removal tool) if you are:

• enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry; and 

• you are the owner of the relevant trademark, and you have submitted reports of potential infringements with an acceptance rate of at least 90% in the last six months.

Protect your brand with a registered trademark

Applying for a trademark can be complicated and tedious, particularly if you are trying to apply using the cumbersome government Trademark office website. It can also be costly, especially if you pay for the services of an Trademark lawyer.

As a solution to these problems, we created Trademarks Online, an online platform that helps you apply for your trademark quickly, in 4 easy steps.

For the average business owner, who is not an expert in trademark law, understanding the requirements for getting a trademark and the categories they fall into is not always straightforward, but our AI-powered software gives you all the information you need in seconds. It only takes a few minutes to submit your trademark application.

Here’s the most important information you need to know about how to get a trademark. 

Footnotes
* Progress Report: Amazon’s Commitment to Brand Protection, accessed 12 December 2020
** Apple Sues Mobile Star for Selling Counterfeit Power Adapters and Charging Cables through Amazon, accessed 12 December 2020
*** Amazon Can Be Held Liable for Faulty Goods, Court Rules, accessed 12 December 2020