Suspected trademark infringement - help needed
Hello,
I have received a message stating that one of my listings was removed due to Suspected Intellectual Property Violations. When I checked the account health page it showed that the listing that is branded as "Generic" is misusing Trademark Gorwrich. I have checked my listing and could not find any signs of this name including pictures. I appealed to Amazon with the following:
"Dear Account Health Specialist,
I am reaching out regarding the recent warning and deactivation of my ASIN XYZ due to a suspected trademark infringement involving the trademark "Gorwich".
I have thoroughly reviewed the entire product listing, including the title, bullet points, product description, keywords, and backend fields. I can confirm that the term "Gorwich" has never been used in any part of the product detail page.
I believe this may have been flagged incorrectly by Amazon’s automated systems. The listing content is original and does not use, reference, or imply affiliation with the brand "Gorwich" in any way. I kindly request a manual review of the listing to verify this.
Please find attached the following to assist in your review:
Screenshots of the product detail page, including: Title, Bullet points, Description, Backend keywords
I value Amazon’s IP policy and always aim to remain compliant. If there is any specific area in the listing that may be causing this flag, I would greatly appreciate further clarification so I can promptly resolve it. Thank you for your assistance and understanding."
I received a reply:
"I understand that you were querying the reinstatement of ASIN: XYZ.
During your application review, we found your product may not be compliant with Amazon Intellectual Property policies and currently has the brand name as “Generic” and GORWRICH products can only be listed by authorized licensed sellers.
After a review, we've determined that we will not be reinstating the removed listings, as the brand on the ASIN cannot be updated, We consider all factors of a product while reviewing policy compliance. If you choose to re-brand a product, you must create a new product rather than updating an existing product.
For more information refer to "Amazon Intellectual Property policy": https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G5VG3YWGGXF4Y5WB"
Can someone advise what shall I do as the answer doesn't make sense to me.
@Ezra_Amazon @Maja_Amazon @Julia_Amazon @Winston_Amazon @Simon_Amazon Please help
8 replies
Seller_RlZVPg3d6ZUGP
Is it a Gorwrich product you have branded generic? or their barcode?
Seller_d8YGbIjNqwFxn
It is a suspected infringement so it is most likely an AI generated infringement and no one has reported you.
Can you compare the Gorwich branded product with yours. Is there any trademark on the product or images you use such as a word or logo? If there is and this is trademarked this maybe where the problem is. If there is not then you are not doing anything wrong and it is not a trademark infringement.
You have checked all the necessary text so it doesn't look like it is part of that.
The only possible type of infringement it could be is a design rights infringement if Gorwich have registered the design. Even if it was then it would be a different type of infringement.
You should be able to appeal this but it may take some time.
Julia_Amzn
Hello @Seller_qbq48IGHbnzNq,
Thank you for reaching out. Did you check all listing attributes? For example:
- Brand
- Listing title
- Bullet points
- Images.
Kind regards, Julia.
Seller_U7CnlknFpB8WI
I had a very frustrating time with a case similar to this.
I think a bot had mistaken a V in a photo on a listing as the "VW" logo. I never really found out, as seller support didn't tell me, despite asking again and again where and what the so-called infringement was in the listing.
Seller support was less than useless. Same copy and paste replies from them again and again. I just gave up in the end and took the account health hit, it was really doing my head in, not being able to talk to someone that didn't copy and paste the same replies again and again, and never answering direct questions. Frustrating doesn't cover it.
Seller_AddbznjmTOmgp
Even though you have 100% checked the contents/product details/product images and confirmed it doesn't exist. There is a backend search term generated by Amazon after the product goes live.
For Example:
customers search 'Gorwich phone accessories' and your product comes up within the search (somewhere on first page) because it shares similar keywords, category and nodes. That customer will then click into your listing even though they were specifically targeting Gorwich products. Exactly the same as PPC algorithm and relevance, its the same targetting function. Just in this case, Amazon have a database or a secondary 'generic search terms' list, not editable by the listing owner, creator, seller or even Amazon themselves (goodluck trying!).
The repeat action of this customer behaviour will generate a backend keyword tracker on the listing and slowly categorise or affiliate your listing with that brand name. For this IP complaint, it must have been happening for sometime for the bot to finally say 'enough is enough' and slam you for doing nothing wrong. From my experience it's not fixable, but some hero from Seller Support might understand and advise.
Seller_tRuvBEHDedp4q
And its this exact line which is giving so much grief to many sellers.
Brand on ASIN cannot be updated - So when a new product is created with wrong Brand it becomes next to impossible to get it corrected. Amazon seem to 'assume' the original listing creator was correct, when they may have made an honest mistake. Or the listing creator may have deliberately misused Brand. Even when you can supply a wealth of evidence (GTIN, manufacturers/suppliers website, pictures of item, etc) Amazon just simply ignore the facts and say they have contacted Brand owner but in reality have done nothing.
Then when all else fails - Amazon solution is If you choose to re-brand a product, you must create a new product rather than updating an existing product so the idea of a catalog of products goes out of the window as you need to create a new product but give it a different Brand. Then Amazon will either stop you creating it 'as its a duplicate' or do it later and the Brand becomes messed up again.
