I have a violation waiting to be removed because I sell Apple Cinnamon Soy Wax Melts, apparently I'm breaching Apples copyright!

It's laughable.

Very interesting this. I sell tech items, ALWAYS genuine original manaufacturer gear. Laptops, desktops, parts etc etc. I went through a phase of having loads of my items withdrawn for 'intelecutral property rights' or using a brand name without permission. Now, the products i sell and sold on are products listed already on amazon, i NEVER create listings - far to much hassle. When i list a genuine product, nothing written in my descriptions would give any other reason for it not to be, are they withdrawn?

Would it be sour grapes as i am usually the cheapest by a long way.

Personally I do not find the policy on Brands clear at all - especially when it comes to licensing.

For example, Company ABC may have a valid license to make a toy model of Spiderman. Now Spiderman could be seen as his own brand, but he in turn is part of the Marvel Comics empire which in turn is now under the Disney brand.

So when the listing is created - what exactly do we enter for the Brand attribute? ABC, Spiderman, Marvel, Marvel Comics or Disney ????

There is no definition I can find. Now if ABC also made toy models of Ironman, Hulk, Thor etc and they get listed by different sellers - we end up with some of the toy models under the brand Disney, some under Marvel, others maybe under their own hero name and others under ABC.

Then of course we have the sellers who will use their own company name as the brand just so they can throw other people off the listings.

It should be fairly simple. If a product has a GTIN code, it is looked up on the GS1 database and whoever is returned as the owner is what should be entered for Brand - no exceptions. In fact, Amazon could do this automatically when a listing is created. If the item has a trademark (i.e. it is licensed) then Amazon may need to see proof of the licensing agreement.

Anyone is allowed to create a listing. But to correct errors in a listing then only the owner of the GTIN should be allowed OR anyone with a Letter of Authorisation (LoA) from the GTIN owner.

When Amazon say only Brand owner can make changes then it should be the owner of the GTIN they contact (I have products I cannot correct errors with such as wrong colour - when I try Amazon say they have contacted brand owner when I know for a fact they have NOT contacted the GTIN owners and they refuse to say who they actually contacted).

If a Brand wants more control of their listings, then they can register with Amazon Brand Registry and choose to allow anyone to list/edit or only list/edit if they can prove a valid authorised supply chain (with invoices) or if they have been issued with a LoA or added to some internal list by the Brand themselves (bypassing the need for a LoA)

So in answer to your question about explaining to someone about the use of someone else's trademark - I would answer I honestly have no idea as there is NO set system as to what should or could be used.

I have an existing violation which I cannot remove and need help with please. I had a T Shirt with the word 'Smiley' in the description so I removed the item from Amazon. The shirt was my own design but the word 'smiley' is trademarked. I realise now I should have just changed it to Smile instead.

I have also had T Shirts removed because the bots think they are Nike products.

Amazon should contact sellers to discuss a possible infringement rather than just delete a listing and put a red violation mark on their account. My sales and AHR have plummeted in recent months.

Hello Sellers,

Thank you again for your contribution to this thread.

I'm gathering examples of listings that were removed because they contained the phrase "BROTHER."

If you have examples of cases or ASINs, please respond to this post.

Your cooperation will be much appreciated.

Best,

Julia.

Hello Sellers,

So far we have reinstated 96 listings.

Please, share your cases IDs and ASINs before deciding to remove any of your listings

Thank you for your cooperation,

Julia.

Hi

I received one this morning for the words 'John Lennon'. I'm selling a hat, and the style was became popular when John Lennon took to wearing one in the early 1960s. I said as much in the item description. I don't think this is a violation as it's just stating a fact. However I have edited it to say 'after an iconic and very famous musician took to wearing one in the early 60s', which makes it sound silly really. I might just have to remove the listing and sell it elsewhere.

Any advice? The ASIN is B0CW9PVLBN. TIA.

here's a case we're dealing with right now, with a similar issue. brand name's are exempt under Amazon IP policies, but a competitor seller is abusing policies by trying to utilize parallel import policies (which is by the way LEGAL in the UK) and is not even the case for us.

no IP trademark from UK databases, we do not know who the complainant is, no contact information besides a random gmail account.

anyone can do this to their competitors, for any listing. it's basically blocking your competitor and having them kicked off the listing to keep the listing to yourself. and with the bots we're dealing with, it takes 10 appeals to get it removed, if ever.

case ID: 9794479312

Hello Sellers 😃

How is everyone doing?

I want to keep this thread open as we are actively working with partner teams on the improvement of the Fair Use of Someone Else's Trademark policy execution.

I want to follow up on the scenarios we were discussing in this thread. Did you notice an increase/decrease in listing suppressions?

Waiting for your feedback!

Thank you,

Julia.