Suspected Intellectual Property Violation
I’m hoping someone may be able to point me in the right direction regarding resolving an alleged trademark violation.
I’ll try to keep things short.
We manufacture a stone effect paint under our own brand. The paint comes in different colours, one of which is called Rode. Rode is the name of a village located in Somerset. The paint is called this as the colour is similar to the colour of the stone used in that area of the UK.
Our listings for the paint in this colour have been removed due to a suspected intellectual property violation. There is a company who have a figurative mark stylised as “RØDE”. My understanding is that a figurative mark differs from a word mark in that only protects the word in the scope of its graphic design, with the emphasis on the visual part of the trademark. It therefore does not prevent others from using an identical word or similar name.
I have been in touch with seller support explaining the above. I’ve even provided them with the number of the registered trademark, which proves that it is only a figurative mark. However, I keep receiving the same response:
"We removed your listing because of concerns that your product may not respect the intellectual property right of others.
Please ask the seller to remove all “Rode” related information from the ASIN PDP including Generic Keyword.
I recognize that this is not the result that you were hoping for, but I want you to know that I did my best to provide you with all the information based on our current policies. We appreciate your understanding in this matter."
Has anyone come across something similar and been able to resolve it successfully with Amazon? If anyone could point me in the right direction, it would be much appreciated.
Many thanks.
8 replies
Seller_9vYzAspLN0bEC
Amazon will not get involved in property rights.
You can try to send an email with all the paper work showing this. This may help to relist the item.
Seller_zSgC5zKFELg5A
Hello @Charles_Products,
Thank you for reaching out to us!
We understand that you have concern regarding your intellectual properly complaints as per the above post.
We would really appreciate the insights from @Smiley_Guy.
By referring to the thread, it is observed that you consider this to be a false claim.
For such a policy violation, when flagged you need to submit the required documents as mentioned below:
Letter of authorization or licensing agreement from Rights owner’s brand or manufacturer must appear on the letter of authorization or licensing agreement.
The letter of authorization or licensing agreement must come from the rights owner or the brand if the reporter was an agent.
if you’re unable to come up with these documents. You should submit a plan of action covering three aspects which are as follows
Root Cause: What led to the violation? What knowledge gap have you observed? Etc.
Corrective Actions: Your immediate steps taken in this regard to resolve the issue
Preventative Steps: Your future plans on how you will be ensuring the violation is avoided.
If you are stating that you will ensure not to violate amazon’s policy in future then what are the necessary steps you are going to take? How will you ensure? Do you have any new listing procedure?
What resources you will be referring to before creating the listing? Is your staff well aware of the policies? Do you have any training program me or improvement plan in mind to ensure such violations do not occur?
Also, you have mentioned that you have identified the issue that caused the violation of your patent policy. Hence, I would advise to kindly mention in the root cause of your plan of action.
Root cause, Corrective actions and Preventative measure should be in alignment.
Further, I would recommend you to go through our policy regarding intellectual property:
https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G201361070
I hope this resolves your query. Please continue to post on the thread if you have any questions around this.
Regards,
Nehal
Ash_AMZ
Hello @Charles_Products,
This is Ash from Amazon, and would help you with your questions.
It has been understood, that you are having concerns on the Intellectual property violations.
As per the Amazon policies, sellers should comply with all federal, state, and local laws and Amazon policies applicable to their products and product listings.
Sellers may not violate the IP rights of brands or other rights owners. Violating this policy may result in loss of selling privileges or other legal consequences.
If your listing has ‘Edit’ as a next step, please edit it to ensure that you are not misusing any trademarks. Once your listing has been corrected, it will automatically be reinstated. Please allow 24 hours for reinstatement.
If your listing incorrectly uses a trademarked logo, edit the product detail page to ensure that you are not misusing any logos and that you are using the correct brand name on your listings.
Thanks for your insights @The_Little_Shop.
Important: If you have a specific question about your IP rights or the IP rights of others please consult a lawyer.
Regards,
Ash.
